US retail giant Wal-Mart could seek a smaller UK grocery business to takeover after failing to get clearance to bid for UK supermarket chain Safeway, analysts have said.
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“At the moment in the UK, the only way you can expand as a retailer is through acquisition,” Richard Hull, head of retail in Britain for consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Hull said Wal-Mart could now try to buy a smaller retailer such as Somerfield or Big Food Group, which owns frozen food retailer Iceland.
Last week, following a lengthy competition inquiry, the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry ruled that neither Wal-Mart’s Asda, Tesco nor J Sainsbury would be allowed to bid for Safeway. Yorkshire-based retailer Morrisons was the only supermarket chain to be given clearance to bid for the chain.
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