§ Mr. Roweasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has as to the six largest retail grocery chains by turnover; and what is the share of the total grocery trade in the United Kingdom commanded by them in 1970, 1980 and at the latest date for which figures are available.
§ Mr. ButcherStatistics on the retail grocery trade are regularly collected by the Business Statistics Office and agregates from these inquiries which do not disclose information about individual businesses are available to me along with data from other sources. Official published figures for the totals of the five largest contributions by enterprise groups show that these accounted for 31 per cent. of retail sales of groceries and provisions in Great Britain in 1980 and 33 per cent. in 1982. Comparable figures for 1970 are not available. (Estimates for the largest six enterprise groups cannot be provided without disclosing information for an individual business.) Some information based on independent surveys of the retail grocery trade is published in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission reports on discounts to retailers (HC 311, 1981) and The Dee Corporation plc and Booker McConnell plc (Cmnd. 9429, 1985).