Topic
The UK supermarket and food retail sector, including national multiples and their own-label and branded supplier ranges.
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