It’s safe to say that since their introduction into the UK market, Britain has fallen in love with discount supermarkets. After the financial crisis in 2008, the discounters’ ‘high quality, low price’ model was exactly the tonic the British people were craving. With purses tightly squeezed and brand loyalty waning, consumers wanted to buy quality food on a smaller budget and that is exactly what the discount grocery stores allowed them to do. 

This week came the bold announcement of the potential merger between two of the Big 4 supermarkets, Sainsbury’s and Asda. On Monday, Sainsbury’s and Asda stepped up to the podium and gave their rationale behind the deal with a presentation to the market, media interviews and the odd sing song (42^nd Street is a great show to be fair).

Using LDC’s online location analysis tool (LDO) alongside market share data, we have looked at the potential fall out of the merger to understand what the CMA may have in store for Sainsbury’s and Asda when investigations begin.

This weekend, the shock announcement was made that two of the Big 4 supermarkets (Sainsbury's and ASDA) might be joining forces. This merger would mean that together, they would overtake the current market share leader, Tesco. We've put together an infographic with 7 key facts that we think you need to know about the potential deal.

"Across GB the state of the grocery market is one of a changing landscape, with the previously clear divisions between supermarkets, convenience stores and discounters becoming blurred. Convenience stores are becoming more and more like mini-supermarkets with a larger chilled food offer, food-to-go selection and fresh produce. Discounters have made similar moves, opening larger stores with some adding in fashion concession partners to increase their offer to shoppers and the Big 4 supermarkets have seen their market share erode in the last couple of years." Supermarkets, Discounters and Convenience Stores', March 2018, Report by LDC

The UK grocery market is evolving at a rapid pace and as the market is becoming increasingly complex, it is becoming increasingly competitive. Against a backdrop of decreasing consumer confidence and reduced spending, vast numbers of grocery retailers jostle to take market share back from others’ pockets. At the time of writing this blog, LDC data shows that there are 42,240 units classified under the supermarkets, groceries and food shops category.

This annual report looks at the grocery sector across the Big 4 supermarkets, discounters (Aldi, Lidl, Home Bargains etc) and convenience stores over five years (2012 - 2017), with a focus on changes over 12 months from January 2017 - January 2018.

July was the month when summer officially started, the kids celebrated the start of their summer holiday and parents desperately search for things to entertain their kids for a full five weeks. However, LDC’s office-based research team were hard at work scanning the internet for activity in the Retail and Leisure market. Here’s a snapshot of what happened in July split by retail sector:

"The landscape of convenience retail in Britain has undergone huge upheavals in the past five years. The latest wave of expansion may have reached a natural end, yet there is good reason to believe that even more fundamental changes lie in the future, as competing store formats continue to proliferate and non-store, non-traditional retailing begins to command a bigger portion of a market worth more than £150 billion each year." Introduction, 'Supermarkets, Discounters and Convenience Stores', June 2017 Report by LDC 

On June 14th, LDC published their annual Supermarkets, Discounters and Convenience Stores report built to answer two fundamental questions: what are the trends and where are the opportunities?

Matthew Hopkinson, Director at LDC, talks about Supermarkets, Discounters and Convenience stores on Wednesday's You & Yours program.