Sainsbury's held merger talks with Morrisons, then walked away

Sainsbury's held multibillion-pound merger talks with Morrisons, the UK's second- and sixth-largest grocers, from November 2025 to February 2026 before walking away. A combined group would have held 23.6% market share, near Tesco's 27.8%, per Worldpanel by Numerator. Both chains declined to comment. The CMA blocked Sainsbury's £7bn bid for Asda in 2019.