Grocery supplier Nisa-Today’s has called on the UK government to block Sainsbury’s recently-announced acquisition of convenience store chain Jacksons Stores.
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Nisa-Today’s, which is Britain’s largest buying group, criticised the Office of Fair Trading’s decision to regulate the convenience store sector and the supermarket sector as two separate markets, meaning supermarket giants such as Tesco and Sainsbury can buy up chains of smaller stores despite being unable to purchase supermarkets in the same location.
“We need to stop a homogenous shopping experience developing. The Office of Fair Trading has helped to create this situation. It needs to radically review its definition of the grocery market,” Nisa-Today’s Neil Turton was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying.
However, Sainsbury’s dismissed the argument, saying it has less than 2% of the convenience market even after the Jacksons deal.
