According to FT.com, the UK’s leading supermarkets have begun what will be months of meetings with their legal advisors, to analyse their positions before the Competition Commission (CC)publishes its final report next year.
Eighteen months into its investigation of the grocery industry, the CC is said to have “sharpened its focus on suppliers and land, creating difficulties and opportunities for the big four supermarkets”, said an FT report.
The expected implementation of proposals to make competitiveness an integral part of the decision-making process when formulating planning law reforms would be designed to put Tesco’s in a position to gain ground on the UK market leader.
“Cutting supermarkets’ holdings of undeveloped land” promises to be harder to introduce and enforce, said the report.
“Much attention will focus on land banks - undeveloped sites owned by Tesco and, less often, other supermarkets - which have been a main thrust of the inquiry since the sector was first referred to the commission for investigation in May last year.”
The commission has sifted data on 14,000 shops across the country and identified 187 areas where a supermarket from the big four - Tesco, Asda, J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison - has both a dominant position within its local market and other substantial land-holdings.
FT.com claimed the commission has “strong concerns” about 110 sites, which it felt were possibly being held to frustrate entry by a competitor. It has identified 50 stores across the UK that could be sold to a competitor, although “Peter Freeman, commission chairman, plays down the prospect of forced disposals”, according to the report.
Order a land disposal programme would be a minefield tactic, inviting arguments over whether empty properties were genuinely ear-marked for development or were held simply to keep rivals out.
