Fin24 reports that the merger between furniture companies Lewis and United Furniture Outlets (UFO) has been granted by the Competition Tribunal, on condition that there are no merger-related retrenchments for the next two years.  

Following a hearing on 10 January, the matter was stood down to give time for further submissions to be made by the SA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu), which was concerned that the merger would lead to layoffs.  According to the union, Lewis had embarked on retrenchments in anticipation of the merger as an attempt to reduce the duplication of functions.  Previously the Competition Commission had concluded that retrenchments were unlikely to happen, but referred the matter to the Tribunal to make a final ruling.  The R320m merger, announced by Lewis in October 2017, will see the company acquire UFO in an effort to diversify its offering.  The merger will come into effect from 1 February 2018.

• Read this report by Lameez Omarjee in full at Fin24

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