Member Article

Morrisons to close 23 more stores as pre-tax losses increase

Supermarket chain Morrisons has announced the proposed closure of 23 more stores during 2015/16 as supermarket wars rage on.

The Bradford-based chain has reported a pretax loss of £792m for the year ending 1st February, compared to a loss of £176m for the same period last year.

Morrisons has continued to battle against the low-priced European chains such as Aldi and Lidl. Since launching its Match & More scheme in October 2014, the retailer reduced the price of 130 high volume everyday lines by an average of 22%.

After announcing the closure of 10 ‘under-performing stores’ in January, Morrisons has today reported it will be increasing that number to 23 as many stores are not performing in line with expectations.

It has been a difficult year for the Yorkshire supermarket chain as former chief executive Dalton Philips was sacked in January, replaced by ex-Tesco boss David Potts, who is due to start March 16.

Andrew Higginson, chairman, said: “Last year’s trading environment was tough, and we don’t expect any change this year. However, Morrisons is a strong, distinctive business - we own most of our supermarkets, have strong cash flow, and are famous with customers for great quality fresh food at low prices. This gives us a good platform.

“David Potts joins as chief executive next week. Under his leadership, we will focus on building trading momentum and being more like the Morrisons our customers expect.

“We will invest more into the proposition and put customers at the heart of everything we do. We will listen and respond to our customers, and work hard every day to improve the shopping trip.

“Success measures will be simple - more customers buying more from us. More customers means more volume growth which, ultimately, will lead to better like-for-like, profitability and shareholder returns.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .