Tesco was yesterday said to be lining up an 800 million euro (£554 million) bid for nearly 300 supermarkets in Poland.

The supermarket giant is already the market leader in Poland with a four per cent share of the market and 105 supermarkets.

According to The Business newspaper, Tesco wants to buy the Polish stores of troubled French supermarket chain Casino.

The acquisition of Casino's Polish operations would give it a further 279 Leader Price stores and 18 under the Geant name, although it is expected to face competition from France's biggest supermarket, Carrefour. ..SUPL: