Somerfield has been rubbished as a rag-tag collection of stores no one wants, or championed as the last great opportunity to add scale in the supermarket sector. Time will tell if the Co-operative Group has bought a dud or stolen a march on its rivals following its £1.57 billion takeover today.

Peter Marks, the Co-op’s chief executive, is convinced the deal will add “rocket fuel” to his plans to revive the Co-op brand nationwide by strengthening its convenience operation in Scotland and the South-West in particular.

Before the days when J Sainsbury and Tesco ruled the world, the Co-op was king. While it is far fetched to believe the Co-op can break back into the Big Four of grocery retailing, it has the potential to shake things up as a solid number five with a market share of almost 8 per cent.

Analysts are impressed with the way the Co-op has refreshed its range of food by highlighting its links with Co-operative farmers through its ‘Grown By Us’ brand, and putting far more fresh and free range food on the shelf.

Integrating a business as big as Somerfield could prove problematic, and the Office of Fair Trading is bound to delay completion of the deal while it studies the competition effects, yet it will be fascinating to watch whether the Co-op can pull this one off.

Just as interesting will be the jostling among the likes of Asda and Waitrose for those stores the Co-op is required to sell. As many as 200 could go on the block and with Waitrose desperate to expand and Asda keen to close the gap on Tesco the competition from potential bidders will be as keen as ever.

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