Asda and Sainsbury’s bosses Roger Burnley and Mike Coupe grilled by MPs over merger
The chair of a select committee has told Asda's boss to "get real" and stop talking "baloney" in a grilling over the supermarket's merger between Asda and Sainsbury's this morning.
Asda's Roger Burnley and Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe appeared in front of the the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee, which has launched an inquiry into the merger.They faced questions on suppliers, staff pay and cost savings.
Chair Neil Parish accused both Burnley and Coupe of talking "baloney" over market share figures and said that the cost of the merger would end up falling on the suppliers to the two supermarkets.
"It's a cut throat world out there and we know whose throat you're going to cut," he said.
He also said he expected Sainsbury's and Asda to eventually become one supermarket.
Burnley denied this, saying that Asda and Sainsbury's would remain "fiercely" independent brands.
However he also said that he could not imagine there being a "vast disparity" between the pay of Sainsbury's and Asda workers, after concerns were raised that Asda's staff are paid less.
Burnley said that he could benefit from the deal if Wal-Mart bases his bonus on the success of the merger.
But Coupe insisted that he would "stand to gain nothing" from the deal.
After the meeting, Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh, who has been leading opposition to changes to Sainsbury's contracts, asked Coupe about staff pay/
"I just wondered how you were able to justify that at the same time as taking a pay increase of over £425,000?" she said as he exited the committee room.
Sainsbury's Mike Coupe may be "in the money" but today he's "in the soup"! Well done to John Grogan, @angelasmithmp, @KerryMP and @neil_parish at a bruising @CommonsEFRA. Just a shame he ran away from my question! #workwellforless pic.twitter.com/4Ls6UVk1iW
— Siobhain McDonagh MP (@Siobhain_MP) June 20, 2018