Breakfast briefing: Retail news on M and M and Tesco

Clothing etailer M and M Direct may be sold for more than £80m

TA Associates, the private equity house which acquired M and M in 2007, has appointed bankers from Canaccord Genuity to handle an auction of the fashion etailer. There is likely to be significant interest in the business, Sky News reported.

Launched in 1987 by Mark Ellis and Martin Churchward to sell end-of-line clearance sports products, M and M now sells lines from more than 300 brands including Diesel, New Balance and Nike. The site attracts almost a million visitors per week.

TA, which is also trying to sell its interest in fashion and homewares retailer Cath Kidston, bought M and M from ECI Partners seven years ago.

Tesco’s market share falls in Ireland

Tesco has once again recorded a slump in its Irish market share, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Tesco’s share fell 1.2 percentage points to 26.4%, the survey showed.

Both Aldi and Lidl outperformed the market, the Irish Times reported. The German discounters’ market share increased by 1.4 and 0.8 percentage points respectively.

SuperValu is now the Ireland’s second biggest grocer after last month’s rebranding of 24 Superquinn stores to the SuperValu fascia.

The grocery market data, covering the 12 weeks up to March 2, showed that SuperValu now accounts for just over 25% of the total market.