Topic
The UK supermarket and food retail sector, including national multiples and their own-label and branded supplier ranges.
Sainsbury's ended preliminary merger talks with Morrisons held earlier this year, according to the FT. Sky News's Mark Kleinman argues in City AM that it is only a pause, with Tesco's lead and the discounters pushing the rest toward a deal.
Reality
Sainsbury's, the UK's second-largest grocer, held merger talks with sixth-placed Morrisons from November to February before walking away. A competition ruling on Aldi and Lidl due this month will shape how many stores a revived deal would cost.
Reality
Sainsbury's held exploratory talks this year on a Morrisons merger that would have created a grocer with 23.6% of the UK market, the FT and Sky reported. Any revival would turn on whether the competition regulator accepted store sales as the price of approval.
Reality
Tesco is weighing a sale of its Hungarian, Czech and Slovak arm, £4.5bn of its £66.6bn revenue last year, with Lidl among the interested parties. A sale would end its overseas expansion and free money and attention for a UK market where its share has recently slipped.
Reality
Lidl GB spent £315m on price cuts and promotions against pre-tax profit of £245.5m as its market share climbed past Morrisons. Deluxe grew only a little faster than the business as a whole, so Lidl's clearer edge over a slowing Aldi is its loyalty scheme.
Reality
UK shoppers spent £34.8m on nitrite-free bacon in the year to 6 September, up 11.4%, according to Worldpanel by Numerator. Retailers are widening ranges to meet concern about curing chemicals, and the producers supplying them have to replace the additive's protection against bacteria.
Reality