B&M eyeing Sainsbury's and Asda stores

Discount retailer B&M is eyeing some of the stores that grocers Sainsbury’s and Asda could be forced to sell as part of their £14 billion marriage.

The competition watchdog could demand mass store disposals in places where both grocers have shops as a condition in permitting the deal.

B&M chief executive Simon Arora on Tuesday said: “We’d be very interested to take some of that space.”

He added it would probably be a subdivision of a superstore to fit with B&M’s current store formats, but he would be happy to split it with fellow discounters Aldi and Lidl.

B&M recently did that with its shop in Tonbridge, which opened in an ex-Homebase store. The landlord split the space in half and Aldi is next door.

“It just tells you what’s happening to UK retail,” he added, as his chain posted flat sales for the half year to September 29. That was because it ran out of seasonal lines in summer, but pre-tax profits were still up 32.5% to £115 million.

Shares fell 29.6p to 375.4p.

The key drivers behind Sainsbury’s tie-up with Asda were also laid bare on Tuesday by industry data.

Kantar research showed Sainsbury’s was the only Big Four grocers that saw sales growth slow, down 0.6%. Asda sales rose 2.6%. Tesco sales were up 0.4% and Morrisons 1.5% in the 12 weeks to November 4, Aldi and Lidl remained the strongest performers.