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How to group fascia on the Subsets page

A long tail of one- and two-site fascias makes a map hard to read, and sometimes several fascias are really one business. Group fascia on the Subsets page handles both: it tidies the legend, and - if you want it to - it makes the grouped fascias count as a single competitor.

Click Group fascia in the left-hand panel, under the colour and shape controls.

The Subsets sidebar, with the Group fascia button under the colour and shape controlsGroup fascia, with every fascia in the subset and how many sites it has
Pick the fascias

The window lists every fascia in the subset with its site count. Search by name, or use Filter by sites to pull out the small ones - a maximum of 2 gives you the tail in one go. Tick the rows you want, type a name under Group name, and click Group.

Naming a group and assigning the selected fascias to it
Decide what the group does

Each group you make gets its own settings, and this is the part that matters:

  • Display only - the legend and the map treat them as one entry. The figures don't change: each fascia is still its own competitor in every share and concentration measure. Use it to tidy up.

A group set to Display only, which changes the legend but not the figures

  • Common ownership - the grouped fascias are treated as one owner in the calculations. Their shares add together, and the market has one fewer competitor in it. Use it when the fascias really are under one owner - a parent company's several brands, or a symbol group you're treating as a single operator.

A group set to Common ownership, treated as one owner in the calculations

With common ownership you can still choose how it looks: One entry shows the group as a single line, Separately keeps the fascias visible while counting them as one.

Click Update to apply. The legend then shows the group with the sites it covers, and the eye icon beside each fascia hides it from the map as usual. Reset all undoes every group.

The legend with the group in it, counting the sites it covers
Pro tips

  • Think twice before using common ownership. It changes the shares, the concentration and the fascia count in every market - a defensible call if the ownership is real, and a hole in your analysis if it isn't.

  • For the long tail, display only is usually enough. Twelve single-site fascias clutter a map but rarely change an outcome.

  • Name groups after what they are - "Symbol group", "Co-op brands", "Independents" - so anyone reading the output knows what was combined and why.

  • Grouping belongs to the subset, so you can keep one subset grouped and another not, and run both as scenarios to show the difference.