Sainsburys is reportedly moving closer to signing a £130 million deal to buy the Nisa convenience store chain.

Nisa is owned by its shopkeeper members, and is reportedly also talking to a number of other retail groups. Sainsburys however is supposedly the lead bidder in the talks.

The Nisa network is derived from its original title, the Northern Independents Supermarket Association. It is a group of some 1400 independent owners who run around 2500 stores nationwide.

Tesco is planning on taking over Booker, that holds a 5000 strong network of convenience stores under the Premier, Londis, Budgens and Family Shopper brands. It is thought that the supermarket giant is making the acquisition for the potential network of click and collect sites. As such Sainsburys move is part of the Big 4’s competition for similar slices of the same market.

Sainsburys has been shopping for other store chains recently, also for logistics and infrastructure. It bought the Home Retail Group, owner of Argos (and its Fast Track delivery network) for £1.4 billion. The Nisa deal would firm up the click and collect side of the delivery business.

These moves are interesting for people in the delivery business as both Tesco and Sainsburys have significant footholds in the mass market home goods verticals and through their acquisitions will help change the face of UK e-commerce to one of their choosing. In house delivery will cut out some independent delivery firms, while others may wish to work with the retail giants through other avenues as they arise.  
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