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| Sainsbury strapline |
As in the rest of the world, UK legacy retailers are buying specialised firms and sharpening their competitive positioning.
Why? Changing consumer behaviour and evolving industry dynamics.
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| Nisa logo |
With fierce price wars raging amongst UK grocery chains, and online competition growing, legacy retailers are looking for new marketing roads to customer loyalty and for supply chain efficiencies to help the bottom line. For example:
- Sainsbury is expected to buy Nisa convenience shops, a 'family' of 2,900 'independent grocers' that serve local neighbourhood shoppers.
- Tesco announced the acquisition of wholesale food firm Booker, a deal that is currently being evaluated by regulatory officials and may result in industry changes.
Meanwhile, US grocery retailers are responding to the news that Amazon has
acquired Whole Foods Market, giving the online giant an instant brick-and-mortar distribution channel. In fact, UK and European grocery retailers may also be affected. And European deep-discount grocer Aldi is
aggressively expanding across the US, adding to the pressure on legacy supermarkets--just as Lidl opens its US stores.
So grocery retailing is increasingly global even as the industry adjusts to low-price, no-frills competition and the growing popularity of online shopping via Amazon and others.
