Safeway: Now part of CI Traders

Senator Phillip Ozouf has written to all politicians in Guernsey asking them to consider working together.

Mr Ozouf is concerned about the takeover by Channel Island Traders in Jersey of Safeway, hours before a new competition law was brought in.

The sale has been referred to the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA), but Guernsey has no equivalent.

Guernsey's Commerce and Employment Department has promised a report on the situation within the next six months. But Mr Ozouf suggests if businesses had to deal with one competition authority instead of two, it would benefit both islands.

He said: "Competition often means losers, which perhaps goes a long way to explain why it is often embraced heartily in theory by politicians but often fought bitterly in practice by companies."

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.

Tom Scott, the executive chairman, says the group's many shops will operate in competition with each other.