Safeway: Now part of CI Traders

Jersey Senator Philip Ozouf is visiting Guernsey on Thursday.

He will explain how the island set up its competition law and the Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA).

Politicians in Guernsey are looking at setting up their own law, but Mr Ozouf believes both islands would benefit from having a single authority.

Supermarket sale

He says there are now more firms which are based in both islands, and the economies of Jersey and Guernsey have more in common than before.

The senator argues that a single authority would be more powerful and efficient than two separate bodies.

One example he is planning to raise with his Guernsey counterparts is what he calls the identical issue of competition in supermarkets.

Mr Ozouf has voiced his concern over the takeover by Channel Island Traders in Jersey of Safeway/Morrisons, hours before a new competition law was brought in.

The sale has since been referred to the JCRA, but Guernsey has no equivalent.

CI Traders, which also owns Jersey's Marks & Spencer, plus Le Riche and Checkers stores, bought the Safeways/Morrisons stores in Jersey and Guernsey for �51m.

But Tom Scott, the executive chairman, has defended the move, saying the group's many shops will operate in competition with each other.