OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings today published a comprehensive report on the U.S. food retailing sector titled 'U.S. Grocery Retailing: Supermarkets Play Defense.'

The report profiles eight of the largest grocery retail companies. Each company report includes Fitch's assessment of the business and financial profile, and provides a detailed capital structure, debt organizational chart, and covenant analysis.

The report also highlights the shift in grocery market share from traditional supermarkets toward discounters, wholesale clubs and specialty formats. This shift will likely intensify over the next five years as discounters and specialty natural/organic formats continue to expand while traditional supermarkets and independents see a reduction in store count. Consumers' willingness to split their shopping across formats will perpetuate this trend and reward retailers with the best prices/products.

Competition continues to drive supermarket consolidation, leading to significant mergers among some of the largest supermarket chains, including the acquisition by AB Acquisition LLC of Safeway Inc. in early 2015, and the pending merger of Royal Ahold and Delhaize Group. At the same time, weaker players are being forced to restructure, with the July 2015 bankruptcy filing by A&P, its second filing in five years, being the latest example.

The following companies are profiled in the report:

--Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
--Costco Wholesale Corporation
--Target Corporation
--The Kroger Co.
--Dollar Tree, Inc.
--SUPERVALU Inc.
--Roundy's, Inc.
--99 Cents Only Stores LLC

The full report 'U.S. Grocery Retailing: Supermarkets Play Defense; Grocery Market Share Shifting to Discount and Specialty Formats' is available at www.fitchratings.com.