Busines news in brief: Adidas | ClydeUnion | Aldi | Lidl

Discount retailers Aldi and Lidl and higher-end Waitrose are taking more business away from Britain’s so-called “big four” grocers, as the market’s polarisation intensifies, monthly industry data reveals.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Aldi scored another all-time record share of 3.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to 9 June, while Lidl and Waitrose both held on to record shares from May of 3 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.

Tesco, number two player Asda and fourth place Morrisons saw their shares dip, while Sainsbury’s increased.

Adidas aiming high with football goal

Sportswear maker Adidas is forecasting record sales for its football business in 2014, aiming to retain market leadership in the sport ahead of US rival Nike in a World Cup year.

Adidas and Nike dominate a market for football kit – replica shirts, shorts, balls and boots – estimated to be worth around €5 billion (£4.2bn) annually.

Setting out its targets a year before the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, German group Adidas said yesterday that sales from its football division would break the €2bn barrier for the first time in 2014.

160 ClydeUnion jobs at risk in Glasgow

Engineering giant SPX has unveiled a second round of cuts in as many years at ClydeUnion Pump’s factory in Glasgow, with some 160 jobs at risk.

Office staff are expected to take the lion’s share of the cuts at the firm, which Jim McColl’s Clyde Blowers Capital sold to SPX in August 2011 for £500 million, with a further £250m due if targets are achieved. The terms were later renegotiated.

McColl had bought the company – then called Weir Pumps – four years earlier for £45m. The engineering tycoon had started his career at Weir Pumps as an apprentice.