Supermarket giant Sainsbury's will face questions over its abandoned Morrisons merger talks when it updates shareholders on Thursday

Sainsbury's engaged in merger discussions with Morrisons between November 2025 and February 2026 before withdrawing. The UK's second-largest grocer holds a 15.3 per cent market share, compared with Tesco's 27.9 per cent. In July it agreed to sell Argos to Swift Partners for at least £120m — a business it had originally acquired for £1.4bn roughly ten years ago.

Regulators blocked Sainsbury's £7bn bid to merge with Asda in 2019.

Barclays forecasts second-quarter sales growth of 2.6 per cent as food inflation eases.

Profit guidance remains between £975m and £1.075bn, alongside a £1bn cost-saving target.