Morrisons is not a must-do deal for Sainsbury’s

Odds are good the CMA would approve of a supermarket merger. But does Sainsbury’s need Morrisons?

Would competition regulators really smile upon a combination of Sainsbury’s and Morrisons? One must assume the two companies believed the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would give a thumbs up if asked, otherwise they would not have initiated their now-aborted merger talks.

It’s easy to list the arguments the duo could make. First, the combined market share of Sainsbury’s (15.2%, on the latest numbers from Worldpanel analysts) and Morrisons (8.4%) would still be less than that of mighty Tesco (27.8%). It would not be a case of leap-frogging the market leader, which was Sainsbury’s big idea back in 2018 when Asda was in its sights.