Ask Bakkavor what the proposed combination of J Sainsbury and Asda would have meant for its business of supplying fresh food to both supermarkets and it replies that the effect would have been negligible. The truth is surely that it would have been bad news.
When two of the UK’s Big Four supermarkets detailed their plan to merge last year, they made no secret of their expectation that their combined buying power would mean they could extract better terms from their suppliers.
For a company such as Bakkavor, which counts Sainsbury’s among its four central customers, dealing with an enlarged operator may well have increased the level and regularity of its orders, but it would almost certainly have eaten into its margins.
So now that