WALL STREET JOURNAL… Ms. [Jane] Wadsworth is part of a new wave of British shoppers chasing bargains with little regard to where they find them. The shift—driven here in large part by two, newly aggressive German discounters, Aldi and its archrival Lidl—has shaken the U.K.’s $274 billion grocery industry to its core.
The traditional U.K. grocer “had huge margins,” says David Herro, a fund manager at Chicago-based investment firm Harris Associates, which, until recently, was a large Tesco shareholder. In the current environment, “It’s like exposing your neck to the discounters, like to a vampire,” he says.
Indeed, as the discount-driven German duo expanded offerings, they have stolen away market share from the country’s traditional players. Those grocers, in turn, have seen their stock prices plummet, triggering executive ousters, layoffs and billion-dollar write downs… (more)
