Register to get free articles
Want unlimited access? View Plans
Already have an account? Sign in
Morrisons has seen total sales, excluding fuel, rise by 3.7% to £3.8bn in its second quarter, while like-for-like sales increased 4.1% in the period from 29 January to 28 April.
Following the £2.5bn sale of its petrol filling station business to MFG, the group successfully completed its debt reduction tender in June and its debt is now reduced by 35% to £4bn from a peak of £6.2bn.
The grocer attributed its results to the good progress performed across its three strategic pillars: commercial excellence, operations optimisation and new value creation.
During the period, Morrisons completed its McColl’s conversion programme with the recent acquisition of 38 stores in the Channel Islands which led to a total of over 1,600 Morrisons Daily convenience stores across the country. The group is now targeting a total of 2,000 convenience stores in 2025.
Rami Baitiéh, chief executive officer, said: “I am pleased with the overall performance of the business in the second quarter with supermarkets, convenience, wholesale and online all delivering growth and contributing to a 4.1% increase in like-for-like sales.
“Customer reaction to the significant investments we have made in the More Card has been very positive. We now have over five million active customers, and transactions using the card have grown by around 35% in the last eight months. We are now targeting 70% of transactions to be through the More Card over the medium term.”
Jo Goff, chief financial officer, added: “This has been another solid quarter of progress with sales and volume improvements right across the business. Our debt has now reduced by over a third and we made further progress on our cost savings programme with £78m delivered in the quarter, taking the total since the start of this year to just over £450m, in line with our £700m three year target.”
