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Retail

Rumoured 'Morrisbury's' Merger Would Revolutionise Delivery: ParcelHero

By Steve Wynne-Jones
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Rumoured 'Morrisbury's' Merger Would Revolutionise Delivery: ParcelHero

A rumoured merger of leading retailers Morrisons and Sainsbury’s would transform home deliveries, says online delivery firm ParcelHero.

Such a venture would bring together three leading ecommerce platforms - that of Amazon, Argos, and Ocado. While Morrisons works with Ocado and Amazon Prime Now, which provides its one-hour food delivery service, Sainsbury’s owns Argos, which has implemented a formidable same day delivery service.

“Following the planned Tesco merger with food distributor Booker, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons will be looking for similar economies of scale; and the two events this week make the tie-up more likely," said ParcelHero's head of consumer research, David Jinks.

He speculated that the death of grocery legend Sir Ken Morrison would accelerate plans for a merger, a possibility first floated by financial institution Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Jinks said the out-spoken 'life president' would have affected the outcome of such a merger in the past: "Had he opposed the plan, Ken Morrison would have undoubtedly let his views be known; and Ken’s family still own 9% of shares in the company."

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However, if the two retail giants were to merge their existing logistics facilities, coupled with the expertise of the three etailers, it could give shoppers the potential to have their shopping ordered and delivered the same day, or hour, he added.

Jinks pointed to ParcelHero’s newly-released industry report, 2030: The Death of the High Street, which found that home shopping will eliminate 50% of town centre stores, and sound the death knell for numerous High Street supermarkets.

It predicted that brick & mortar supermarkets’ share would dip from 42% to 24% by 2030.

“Superstores rely on volume because of their small margins. A radical solution is needed that knits physical stores and e-commerce together. For Sainsbury’s and Morrisons this combined offering with the three major online players looks like the answer," he concluded.

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© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up for ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.

 

 

 

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