Note: CR3 and CR4 refer to concentration ratios of the market share of top 3 (CR3) and top 4 (CR4) firms Source: Planet Retail, 2007, 2006; Nielson, 2005.

auction contracts worth $8bn. Associations between buying groups and the top 30 retailers in Europe are common. The largest, EMD, has a 10.6% market share in Europe and a sales volume of EUR 950 million. Buying groups can have a significant impact on actual industry concentration. For instance in Hungary, from the Top-10 list SPAR and Metro form the buyer group METSPA with more than USD 1,800 million sales and Cora (Delhaize group) and Csemege are part of the PROVERA buyer group. Because of the buying groups, in western Europe only around 110 buying desks account for about 85% of the total retail food (not food-service) sales of the western European countries (Grievink, 2003) (see Figure 2-22).
     Consolidation of retailers' supply base is creating con­ditions in which competition between suppliers creates its own pressure on producer prices. For example, between May and August 2004, the big three UK supermarket com­panies all announced rationalization of their milk supply, to two suppliers in the cases of Tesco and Sainsbury's and one in the case of Asda.

2.8.2 Concentration and trends at national levels
Germany is famously the toughest market in Europe. Deep discounters have a huge share of the market, accounting for 27% of modern grocery distribution sales, with that share around 50% for some product areas such as milk. The position of discounters is supported by strict plan­ning laws for "big box" retailing, consumer perceptions

of discounter private labels as good quality and popularity across income groups. The rate of growth of the UK food market has slowed and competition at the consumer side is very intense, with a permanent price war. Many firms have struggled to remain competitive and build critical mass in a market where market share is perceived to be key to success, including Morrison's (following the acquisition of Safeway), Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's (only just starting to reverse a decline) and even Asda (part of Wal-Mart group) which has recently reported disappointing figures. This turmoil is not limited to publicly owned companies. The Cooperative Group is now searching for "efficiencies" after poor sales figures following a series of acquisitions. Only Tesco seems

Table 2-9. Outlook for private label in Europe (% sales).
Source: Planet Retail, 2006, 2007; Nielsen, 2005.