Amazon is rebuffed by Tesco and Sainsbury’s

Amazon approached Tesco and Sainsbury’s over separate deals to sell the supermarkets’ products on its website but was rebuffed, it can be revealed.

Senior figures at the online giant tried to persuade Tesco to sell its F&F clothing range.

However, following an exploratory meeting around 18 months ago, talks fizzled out.

A Tesco spokesman said: “Our only conversations with Amazon related to our F&F clothing brand, which led to nothing.”

Amazon also approached Sainsbury’s regarding a deal to sell products on its platform.

It came well before the supermarket announced its £12 billion deal to merge with Asda weeks ago.

But a source said Amazon was rebuffed by Sainsbury’s, which viewed the proposition as competitively disadvantageous.

The news comes as the web giant makes a concerted effort to take a bigger slice of the British grocery market.

The online titan already has a similar deal with Morrisons in the UK, whereby it sells fresh, chilled and frozen food produced by the grocery firm.

It also runs the nascent Amazon Fresh delivery business and is keen to push further into the sector.

Amazon splashed out more than £10 billion to acquire supermarket chain Whole Foods last year, its biggest foray into the grocery sector to date, giving the group control over seven UK stores.

The revelations come just weeks after it was reported that Amazon also attempted to open talks with the John Lewis Partnership over a takeover of Waitrose last year.

Britain’s supermarket sector is going through a period of rapid change, with the rise of Aldi and Lidl.

Sainsbury’s and Amazon declined to comment.