BIG-PROFITS CHAIN IS ON THE MARCH SOUTH

MORRISONS supermarkets pledged to continue expansion into southern England as they served up a forecast-busting 21% rise in annual profits.

The group unveiled plans to open 60 new stores in the next three years.

The move will create 20,000 jobs. Bosses of Britain’s No 4 supermarket group, whose traditional heartland is in northern England, said they were under-represented in key parts of the UK, with 7million households still lacking access to them.

Finance director Richard Pennycook said plans to open 1.5m extra square feet of shop space, particularly smaller stores, would let them reach more customers.

The group added 43 stores during the year, including 34 bought from the Co-op, and replaced two existing shops.

“Our space ambitions in the future remain more in the South than elsewhere,” said Mr Pennycook.

Morrisons’ focus on price-cutting and fresh food has paid off with pre-tax profits – before one-off items – rising to £767m from £636m in the 52 weeks to January 31 on a 6% rise in turnover to £15.4billion. Analysts had expected profits of £757m.

Morrisons, who have more than 420 stores, have out-performed bigger rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury on sales for most of the past two years, helped by low prices, promotions and fresh-food counters.

New chief executive Dalton Philips, who joins from Canadian grocer Loblaw on March 29, will have to decide whether to follow bigger rivals into non-food products such as clothing, which currently accounts for just 6% of Morrisons sales.

Mr Pennycook said the main priority was to improve core food range, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables and ready meals. “We do want to move non-food forward but we can’t mix the messages.”

The company expects 2010 to be as tough as last year. Chairman Sir Ian Gibson said: “We expect the economic environment to remain challenging with disposable incomes under pressure.”

» MORE 'IT'S THE BUSINESS' HERE...

Share @:Digg StumbleUpon del.icio.us Newsvine reddit

Want to Shout?

 

Print This Page

Email To A Friend

Contact Us

Get RSS