Research Paper on:
A Report on the Supermarket Sector of the UK Retail Industry

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
to the UK food market. To others it has been seen as a negative move reducing the number of competitors in an already oligarchic food retail structure. To understand the  impact this may have the industry its self needs to be understood and then the two companies may be examined in terms of the strategic fit. 1. Market Structure.  The food retail market is worth a total of ?80.3 billion in 2001 increasing by only 0.1% in 2001 (Euromonitor, 2003). The sector is dominated by supermarkets that  took more than 81% of the market share, by 2006 they are expected to have an 82% share (Euromonitor, 2003). The structure is one that is an oligopoly with the  market controlled by three main supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda. In looking at the way the market has developed this is a well established structure that is becoming more,  rather than less concentrated. In 1990 the two of the top three supermarkets where the same top three as today, however the market share was very different. Sainsburys had  the dominant position, with an 11% market share in 1990 and increasing to 11.9% in 1992 (Hemple, 2002). Tesco had a market share of 9.7 and Asda had 6.% putting  it behind both the C-op with an 8% market share and Safeway with 7.1%. The situation was very competitive, with little legislation impacting on the way the companies competed  apart from he regulations on opening hours and licensing hours that have since been reduced. The companies competed in similar manners, developing own brands, advertising and seeking to increase market  share. When considering that market size has increased from ?59.9 billon in 1990 to ?99.8 billion in 2000, including the non food sales in the supermarkets (Hemple, 2002). The competition