THE planned merger of supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Asda could damage competition in 463 areas where the businesses overlap, the competition watchdog has warned.
The Competition and Markets Authority said there was a “realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition if Sainsbury’s and Asda are insufficiently constrained by other local competitors”.
It is the first real sign of the regulatory challenge facing Britain’s second and third largest grocers, and means that the two could be forced to offload hundreds of stores to get their merger cleared.
The CMA said: “At a local level, the parties’ stores overlap in several hundred local areas across the UK.”
The findings were included in the CMA’s phase one investigation into the £12bn merger, which took into account local competition from other supermarkets including Tesco and Morrisons, but not discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.
Sainsbury’s and Asda have called on the regulator to also include those in its calculations of risk to competition.
Last week the CMA launched the second phase of its investigation.
It has previously said that where the stores overlap it could mean shoppers facing higher prices or a worse quality of service, and that it would not allow the deal to go ahead if its concerns are not fully addressed.
The merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda – announced in April this year – would create a group with 330,000 staff, £51 billion of revenues and a network of 2,800 stores – including outlets under the Argos brand which Sainsbury’s bought in 2016.
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Following the announcement in April, Lidl and Aldi promised to keep prices lower than their rivals.
But earlier this month, Tesco opened the doors to its new discount chain Jack’s in a bid to rival the two.
Meanwhile, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s this week cut petrol prices by up to 2p, sparking a price war.
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News Pictures Asda and Sainsbury’s merger could close almost 500 supermarkets
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