Sainsbury's held merger talks with Morrisons. Together they sell 23.6% of Britain's groceries.
The preliminary talks ran from November 2025 to February 2026, when Sainsbury's walked away, Sky News reported on Monday.
City A.M. and the Financial Times followed. The companies are no longer in active talks, though a return has not been ruled out. Both declined to comment.
Sainsbury's holds 15.2% of the market and Morrisons 8.4%, against Tesco's 27.8%, according to Worldpanel by Numerator.
Sainsbury's has already had a £7.3bn Asda takeover blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority, in 2019. Morrisons has been owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice since 2021 and reported £7.5bn in net debt for the year to October 2025, up from £7.1bn.
Combined, the pair would still sit 4.2 points behind Tesco. The reports give no price and do not say how Morrisons' debt would be handled. They also do not say whether a combined group would merge supplier contracts or buying teams.
If you supply both chains, does your contract let a merged group pool volumes for a bigger rebate?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
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