The combined business would create a grocery giant comprising more than 600 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and almost 600 Asda grocery stores along with a large network of filling stations and more than 800 Sainsbury’s convenience stores.

Consolidation on this scale has inevitably attracted the attention of the regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has already completed an initial phase-one investigation into the impact the merger could have on shoppers – and in particular the prices they pay at the till.