In this instalment, our UK analysts offer their take on some of the market’s latest developments and initiatives. Here’s what you need to know about:

• Asda launches 400 new lines and makes major changes to in-store experience

• Asda undercuts rivals with £5 premium lunchtime meal deal

• M&S announce 7% food sales growth in 2025/26 results

• Lidl GB trials food wastage reduction app

• Lioncroft Wholesale hit by trading challenges in 2025

• Blakemore acquires SPAR south-west distributor Appleby Westward

Asda launches 400 new lines and makes major changes to in-store experience

Asda has launched 400 new food and drink lines as part of a wider package of changes aimed at winning back lost shoppers. The launch is one of the biggest product refreshes seen at the retailer in recent years with new lines appearing in categories including frozen, bakery, produce, fresh meat and food-to-go. The in-store environment for fresh produce and frozen, two of the retailers most shopped categories, has been upgraded. Dedicated greengrocers will return to fruit and vegetable aisles, which have also seen new signage installed. In Frozen, Asda has introduced clearer layouts and given greater prominence to best-selling lines. Price cuts to new Asda Price points have also been rolled out across stores.

Senior Insight Analyst, Alex Rowberry’s view: The latest set of changes by Asda are the most significant change to its offer since the re-introduction of Rollback to Asda Price at the start of 2025. While the upgrades to fresh and frozen categories might be seen as less eye-catching compared to the millions invested in upgrading a limited number of northern stores, the implementation across its entire supermarket estate will reach a greater number of shoppers.

 

Asda undercuts rivals with £5 premium lunchtime meal deal

Asda has undercut rival premium lunchtime meal deals with the launch of its own premium meal deal for a fixed priced of £5. The meal deal includes a main, a drink and a snack with shoppers able to choose from 17 main options. In comparison, Tesco’s Finest Meal Deal is priced at £5.50 for Clubcard holders and £6 for non-holders, Co-op’s premium meal deal is also priced at £5.50 for loyalty members and £6 for non-members, while Sainsbury’s premium meal deal has a fixed price of £5.50.

Senior Insight Analyst, Alex Rowberry’s view: The lunchtime meal deal category is shaping up to be a new battleground for retailers with Sainsbury’s recently refreshing its front of store offer and Tesco targeting growth in the category. Asda’s launch of a premium meal deal reflects a broader push to reassert its price-led proposition and builds on its plans for expansion in the convenience market.

Lidl GB trials food wastage reduction app

Lidl is expanding its partnership with Neighbourly by trialling a new collaboration with food-sharing app Olio, adding its network of ‘Food Waste Heroes’ to help redistribute more surplus food. The initiative, launching in 20 stores across London and Northern England, enables volunteers to collect unsold chilled items and bakery goods in the evenings and share them locally, complementing existing charity redistribution. Lidl expects the trial to redistribute over 5,000 tonnes of food annually and support its goal of cutting operational food waste by 70% by 2030.

Insight Partner, Dan Butler’s view: this will help to maximise the use of edible surplus food, ensuring less ends up as waste while reaching more people in need. By layering community volunteers on top of charity partnerships, it creates a more flexible, efficient redistribution system that can capture food that might otherwise go unused.

Lioncroft Wholesale hit by trading challenges in 2025

Birmingham-based Unitas member Lioncroft Wholesale, the cash & carry operation that formerly traded as East End Foods, suffered a 9.7% fall in sales in its latest reported financial year to April 2025, according to accounts filed with Companies House. Turnover was down to £148 million from £164 million in the previous year. As sales fell, rising costs, especially in employment, saw Lioncroft’s operating loss deepen in the year to -£1.2 million following a loss of £0.4 million in 2023/24. However, gross margins stayed effectively level at 5.1%.

Insight Partner, Patrick Mitchell-Fox’s view: These figures from Lioncroft show once again the challenges being faced by UK wholesalers and especially those focused on serving customers in the independent retail sector, where traditional core categories, and especially tobacco are seeing sales declining sharply. Covering a similar period, to June 2025, larger competitor Bestway Wholesale saw sales fall 5.5%. Against a background of traditionally low gross margins, falling sales has a significant impact on business profitability for these wholesalers, especially when operating costs continue to rise.

Blakemore acquires SPAR south-west distributor Appleby Westward

AF Blakemore has taken another step in the consolidation of the UK SPAR retail network by purchasing the Appleby Westward business from South African SPAR Group for £7 million.  This adds coverage of the south-west of England to Blakemore’s existing SPAR franchise that already includes all southern, eastern and midland England as well as Wales. The deal now reduces the number of SPAR wholesalers in the UK to just four: James Hall in northern England, CJ Lang in Scotland and John Henderson in Northern Ireland besides the newly enlarged Blakemore. Of these four, Blakemore is substantially the biggest, servicing nearly half of all the c2,300 UK SPAR stores. As well as Appleby Westward’s Saltash (Cornwall) distribution site Blakemore is also acquiring 71 of its company-owned SPAR stores, while 63 others are being divested.

Insight Partner, Patrick Mitchell-Fox’s view: this acquisition by Blakemore concludes a lengthy sale process that has lasted almost 10 months following SPAR Group’s decision to sell its under-performing UK business.  From early on it was clear that Blakemore was the only credible candidate to acquire Appleby Westward.  The time taken to conclude the deal and the price tag probably reflect Blakemore’s determination not to over-pay for a business which had suffered from sharply falling sales and profitability in the last few years.

M&S announce 7% food sales growth in 2025/26 results

M&S released its full year results for 2025/26 with the headline figure being a 7% growth in food sales year-on-year. Despite the cyber incident during the first half of the year, M&S stayed resilient and posted an operating profit of £444.5 million in its food business, down from £491.8 million last year, reflecting the markdown in H1 and the subsequent volume growth in H2. As well as this, M&S has relaunched its Sparks loyalty scheme, changing the format of rewards into a wallet-based system, with the grounds laid out for further personalisation and development. Within the results, M&S revealed the three core investment programmes it is focussing on entering 2026/27; supply chain modernisation, technology transformation and store rotation. As well as this, the retailer details that it has developed a pipeline of new, high-volume store openings, alongside investments to increase in its supply chain capacity.

Analyst, Seth Russell’s view: M&S’ results show incredible resilience despite the issues faced due to the cyber-attacks. The growth seen in food shows the retailers’ focus on investment into its food business through NPD, new ranges, store openings and renewals can drive volumes significantly and cause a sharp turnaround at the worst of times. The outlook is positive for continued growth as M&S continue to invest in doubling the size of its food business, modernise its existing estate, and the construction of a new automated distribution centre.

What to read next: M&S reveal a 7% sales growth in its food business

 

Looking for more insight?

Subscribers can find out more on our UK market hub.