If you switched on the news any night this week, the chances were you caught Sir Peter, Sir Ken or Mr DeNunzio explaining why hoisting their respective fascias over Safeway's front door offered consumers the best deal.
The only supermarket boss who didn't grace our screens was Sir Terry Leahy, whose cracking performance over Christmas has been overshadowed by the fact that, theoretically, Tesco could soon be knocked off its pedestal as undisputed market leader.
Indeed, the day Tesco posted some of the best festive trading figures on the market, the only grocer to get any airspace was Asda boss Tony DeNunzio, telling BBC Radio 4's Today listeners why the smart money was on Wal-Mart to snap up Safeway.
The day after Morrisons tabled its bid, Big Food Group boss Bill Grimsey barely got a mention in the media. This despite the fact that for once he had some more positive news for the City about Iceland, where like-for-like sales improved from a dismal 7.7% in the second quarter to a more palatable 3.6% in the third.
If Sir Terry feels threatened by recent events, however, he still has a few cards up his sleeve with sources suggesting a bid is being hatched to pick up Safeway's c-stores in tandem with a private equity buyer. Sir Peter Davis however, has more to lose, says Seymour Pierce analyst Rhys Williams. "The Christmas trading figures say it all. They show why Tesco is market leader. Safeway did surprisingly well, and Morrisons, while slightly below expectations, was up against very tough comparatives. But Sainsbury just can't keep up."
Moreover, a successful Wal-Mart bid for Safeway would not only push Sainsbury further down the rankings, but firmly establish EDLP as the dominant pricing model, making it look still more expensive.
If Tesco's UK performance was bang on the money, however, its international sales growth at 24.9% received a less favourable reaction in the City. "International doesn't look great," notes one analyst. "By our measure, Tesco has put in about 35% new space [new stores plus the Polish HIT acquisition], and sales growth was nowhere near in line with that. "It's always the same, with Tesco. UK is great, but international is disappointing, and at the end of the day, ratings are based on overseas potential too."
Asda meanwhile, put out a bullish trading update, claiming to have maintained recent levels of growth over Christmas, which would equate to like-for-like sales in the high single digits, outperforming the competition by some margin. Once again, growth was driven by non-food, with supercentres at Minworth and Havant taking a stonking £4m each in the week before Christmas, and George turning in another record performance.
BFG's Bill Grimsey was similarly upbeat, insisting Iceland had hit on a "formula that delivers growth but protects our margins". Volume growth, at least, was positive on a like-for-like basis, he adds.
"Most encouraging is that three out of four of our new formats are delivering very positive, profitable, growth."
Despite lousy sales in October and November, however, the biggest irony of all was Safeway's admission, which was published minutes before the Morrisons offer went public, that its Christmas sales had beaten those of at least two of its potential new owners hands down.
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The only supermarket boss who didn't grace our screens was Sir Terry Leahy, whose cracking performance over Christmas has been overshadowed by the fact that, theoretically, Tesco could soon be knocked off its pedestal as undisputed market leader.
Indeed, the day Tesco posted some of the best festive trading figures on the market, the only grocer to get any airspace was Asda boss Tony DeNunzio, telling BBC Radio 4's Today listeners why the smart money was on Wal-Mart to snap up Safeway.
The day after Morrisons tabled its bid, Big Food Group boss Bill Grimsey barely got a mention in the media. This despite the fact that for once he had some more positive news for the City about Iceland, where like-for-like sales improved from a dismal 7.7% in the second quarter to a more palatable 3.6% in the third.
If Sir Terry feels threatened by recent events, however, he still has a few cards up his sleeve with sources suggesting a bid is being hatched to pick up Safeway's c-stores in tandem with a private equity buyer. Sir Peter Davis however, has more to lose, says Seymour Pierce analyst Rhys Williams. "The Christmas trading figures say it all. They show why Tesco is market leader. Safeway did surprisingly well, and Morrisons, while slightly below expectations, was up against very tough comparatives. But Sainsbury just can't keep up."
Moreover, a successful Wal-Mart bid for Safeway would not only push Sainsbury further down the rankings, but firmly establish EDLP as the dominant pricing model, making it look still more expensive.
If Tesco's UK performance was bang on the money, however, its international sales growth at 24.9% received a less favourable reaction in the City. "International doesn't look great," notes one analyst. "By our measure, Tesco has put in about 35% new space [new stores plus the Polish HIT acquisition], and sales growth was nowhere near in line with that. "It's always the same, with Tesco. UK is great, but international is disappointing, and at the end of the day, ratings are based on overseas potential too."
Asda meanwhile, put out a bullish trading update, claiming to have maintained recent levels of growth over Christmas, which would equate to like-for-like sales in the high single digits, outperforming the competition by some margin. Once again, growth was driven by non-food, with supercentres at Minworth and Havant taking a stonking £4m each in the week before Christmas, and George turning in another record performance.
BFG's Bill Grimsey was similarly upbeat, insisting Iceland had hit on a "formula that delivers growth but protects our margins". Volume growth, at least, was positive on a like-for-like basis, he adds.
"Most encouraging is that three out of four of our new formats are delivering very positive, profitable, growth."
Despite lousy sales in October and November, however, the biggest irony of all was Safeway's admission, which was published minutes before the Morrisons offer went public, that its Christmas sales had beaten those of at least two of its potential new owners hands down.
{{ANALYSIS }}
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