I have copied some key points below:
https://news.sky.com/story/sainsbury...orces-11353408
Quote:
Sainsbury's has agreed to merge with supermarket rival Asda - and plans to maintain both brands.
There are no plans to close Sainsbury's or Asda stores though executives are targeting savings of £500m, including "operational efficiencies" and by opening Argos concessions in Asda stores.
Sainsbury's also said customers would see benefits including price cuts of 10% on many of the products that customers by regularly.
Sainsbury's - which also owns Argos - said the merger would create a network of more than 2,800 Sainsbury's, Asda and Argos locations. It will have more than 330,000 employees.
It comes at a time when the major players are battling to remain competitive, with households facing an income squeeze and German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl posing a growing threat.
The announcement also revealed that Asda's operating profit for 2017 had fallen by 15% to £720m, despite a recovery in sales, as it piled investment into keeping prices down.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury's reported a 19% fall in its annual profit for the 52 weeks to 10 March to £409m as it counted the cost of a stores shake-up.
Plans for the merger will see the newly-enlarged business led by Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe with Asda continuing to be run from Leeds with its own chief executive - who will join the board.
Asda chief executive Roger Burnley said: "The combination of Asda and Sainsbury's into a single retailing group will be great news for Asda customers, allowing us to deliver even lower prices in store and even greater choice.
"Asda will continue to be Asda, but by coming together with Sainsbury's supported by Walmart, we can further accelerate our existing strategy and make our offer even more compelling and competitive."
Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "There are clear benefits from the two supermarkets joining forces, particularly when it comes to leveraging their combined buying power, which should result in both lower prices for customers and higher margins for the business.
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I don't believe for a second that there won't be store closures and job losses. They must think we are all stupid if they think saying that is going to get them off the hook with the unions and through the CMA approval process. There will need to be firm guarantees in place because I can bet that after a year and everything has settled down it will be "due to challenging times in the retail sector we have had to take the unforeseen and regrettable decision to close 40% of our stores. This will help realign the business and ensure we continue even better prices to our customers bla bla bla..."