LONDON (Reuters) - Sainsbury's is to buy Walmart's Asda for around 7.3 billion pounds ($10 billion) in a bold attempt to overtake long-time leader Tesco as Britain's biggest supermarket group by market share.
Below is how Britain's biggest four supermarket chains size-up, plus data on the two fastest growing grocers, discount groups Aldi and Lidl.
Market share is sourced from Kantar data for the 12 weeks to April 22, 2018, released on Tuesday and compared to data in the same period last year. Online market share is for October 2017, sourced from Kantar seen by Reuters in an analyst note.
Sainsbury's
Founded: 1869
Sales: 31.7 billion pounds in 52 weeks to March 10, 2018
Profit: 589 million pounds underlying pretax profit
Ownership: London-listed, market capitalisation of 6.79 billion pounds
Market share: 15.9 percent, down from 16.2 in same period last year
Staff: 195,000
Store footprint: over 2,000 (605 supermarkets, 809 convenience stores, 715 Argos stores)
Average store size: 36,000 sq ft, excluding convenience shop
Online: 16.1 percent of UK online grocery market, Sainsbury's says average number of customer orders made through groceries online channel per week is 276,000
General merchandise: Owns Argos, has sales of over 6 billion pounds worth of from general merchandising, clothing and Argos (according to Sainsbury's annual report 2017)
Asda
Founded: 1949 as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores, has roots stretching back to 1920s
Sales: group revenues of 21.7 billion pounds for full year 2016 (the last year for which results are published)
Profit: underlying operating profit of 1.08 billion pounds
Ownership: owned by the world's largest retailer Walmart since 1999
Market share: 15.5 percent, down from 15.6 percent in the same period last year
Staff: Over 145,000
Store footprint: 635 stores (584 grocery superstores plus petrol stations and Asda living stores)
Average store size: 35,000 sq ft
Online: 15.9 percent of UK online grocery market, Asda says it has 400,000 orders a week online, including home delivery, click and collect and sales from clothing website George.com
General merchandise: Asda's George brand is the UK's No. 2 clothing retailer with over 10 percent of the total clothing market, according to Sainsbury's presentation
Tesco
Founded: 1919
Sales: 38.7 billion pounds in 52 weeks ended Feb. 24, 2018, for UK, Republic of Ireland division
Profit: Operating profit before exceptional items of 1.05 billion pounds for UK, Republic of Ireland division
Market share: 27.6 percent, flat on the same period last year
Ownership: London-listed, market capitalisation of 23 billion pounds
Staff: 330,000 UK employees
Stores: 3,435 UK stores (252 Extra; 480 superstore; 172 metro; 1,749 express; 6 customer fulfilment centres; 776 One Stop)
Average store size: about 30,000 sq ft based on superstores
Online: 40.3 percent UK online grocery market
General Merchandise: sells a range of goods through TescoDirect.com, does not provide break-down of sales figures
Morrisons
Founded: 1899
Sales: Revenue of 17.3 billion pounds in 53 weeks ended Feb. 4, 2018
Profit: Underlying pretax profit of 374 million pounds
Market share: 10.5 percent, flat on the same period last year
Ownership: London-listed, market capitalisation of 5.73 billion pounds
Staff: 110,000
Store footprint: 493 stores
Average store size: data not available
Online: 5.6 percent of UK online grocery market, also supplies Amazon with products, Amazon Prime customers can buy Morrisons products online, also has a distribution agreement with Ocado, Britain's online-only grocery retailer
General Merchandise: Sells cookware, homeware, children's and women's clothing
Aldi
Founded: Opened its first UK store in 1990
Sales: 10 billion pounds for full-year 2017
Profit: not yet announced
Market Share: 7.3 percent compared with 6.9 percent in the same period last year
Ownership: owned by Germany's Aldi Sud, the world's No. 5 retailer
Staff: Over 30,000
Stores: Over 750
Average store size: 1,254 sq metres (13,500 sq ft)
Online: Aldi sells wines and Specialbuys online; online launched in January 2016
General Merchandise: Aldi has Specialbuys which typically includes homewares, electricals, DIY, clothing
Lidl
Founded: Opened its first UK store in 1994
Sales: 5.3 billion pounds in sales for 2016 (2017 not yet released)
Profit: does not disclose profits
Market Share: 5.4 percent compared with 5.0 percent in the same period last year
Ownership: owned by Dieter Schwarz, Germany's richest man
Staff: 22,000 people
Stores: Over 700 stores across England, Scotland and Wales
Average store size: average size of latest store format is 1,300 sq metres (14,000 sq ft)
Online: n/a
General Merchandise: Not part of its core range. General merchandise stock is available for a limited time only and on a while-stocks-last basis
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Mark Potter)
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
