Morrisons will open 400 additional Morrisons Daily convenience stores around the country as part of a concerted effort to challenge discounters Aldi and Lidl.
The retailer said it wants to increase its total number of smaller stores to 2000 by next year – though exact locations have yet to be revealed. The news coincided with the group having reported a 4.1 percent increase in like-for-like sales during the second quarter to April 28, as total sales (excluding fuel) nudged up 3.7 percent to £3.8bn. The supermarket also posted a debt reduction of £4 billion – down from a peak of £6.2 billion.
Morrisons Chief Executive Rami Baitiéh said: “Over the last eight months we have listened carefully to over 340,000 customers, colleagues and suppliers and the insights from this exercise are helping to refine and shape the activity in all three pillars of our strategy: commercial excellence, operations optimisation and new value creation.
“It’s clear that availability and our loyalty scheme are the two areas our customers talk about the most and so we are focusing intensively on these areas.”
Baitiéh said the Morrisons More Card now boasts more than five million active customers, while transactions using the card have risen by approximately 35 percent in the last eight months. He also singled out its Aldi and Lidl Price Match initiative, remarking it had got off to a “great start” and was “increasing” its competitiveness.
Morrisons celebrates its 125th anniversary this year and has marked the occasion with a new TV campaign called ‘over the counter, over the years’. The 40 second advert features conversations between Morrisons staff and customers over the decades, whilst capturing the changing fashions, hairstyles and food trends (below).
Mark Elwood, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett UK, said: “As other supermarkets have shut their fresh food counters, Morrisons Market Street is still going strong. Their commitment to fresh food, value and service to their customers is in their DNA. Bread made and baked fresh in-store. Fresh fish filleted so you don’t have to faff. Just the right amount of fresh minced beef for your mid-week spag-bol, all served with smiles and advice. 125 years of values and value still going strong. A compelling reason to shop at Morrisons.”
