Welcome to the January-February issue of Grocery Trader. Families in over 200 UK towns are paying up to £2,437 more per year on their grocery shopping simply because they lack access to a discount supermarket, new analysis from Aldi reveals. The research identifies a significant “discounter gap” across Britain, with communities from Stonehaven in Scotland to Totnes in the South West missing out on the savings that shoppers with access to Aldi enjoy.
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Waitrose has announced that its first distribution centre in the South West will create over 550 new jobs in the region. Located in Avonmouth, Bristol, the new site will be its most sustainable distribution centre, and will be run by logistics company DHL. DHL will begin recruiting for 480 warehouse colleagues and 80 drivers in spring, ahead of the site opening in early 2027.
Asda has kickstarted 2026 with the launch of two brand new Express stores, taking the total number of Express sites to over 500 as the retailer continues to expand and bring unbeatable value to new communities across the UK. Since entering the convenience channel in 2022, Asda has rapidly expanded its footprint, and now operates over 500 sites following the launch of 17 Express stores in 2025. Asda Express has continued to grow with the launch of two new sites, located in Bradford and Salford.
Cybersecurity will be the defining pressure on global food and grocery retailers in 2026 as criminals continue to exploit weaknesses across supply chains to extort money and cause maximum disruption. That’s according to IGD’s recent Global Retail Trends 2026 report, which identified seven key issues that will define the direction of the food and grocery industry over the next 12 months. Top of the list is cybersecurity, which is set to become retail’s “frontline” as it shifts from a “siloed IT function to a board-level strategy priority”, writes Zac Warren, Senior Director of Cybersecurity Advisory, EMEA at Tanium.
Grocery and retail staff are, by nature, deeply connected to the communities around their stores. They see first-hand the pressures on households, the charities stepping in to help, and the organisations holding local life together. As such, many employees are keen to support the causes they know make a difference, yet participation in CSR (corporate social responsibility) and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) programmes can still vary widely across retail estates, writes Steve Butterworth, CEO of Neighbourly.
Concerns about ultra-processed foods (UPF) have gained strong momentum across the U.K. media. With health influencers and news programmes keeping the issue visible and bringing it into household conversations, what once lived in small nutrition circles now shapes mainstream shopping habits. Some families compare ingredients with more care and question products they previously bought without hesitation, writes Ellie Gabel of Revolutionized.
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