Morrisons boss to draw up plans to ‘reinvigorate’ supermarket group

The debt-laden company has seen a tough two years since being taken over by a US private equity firm in a £7billion deal.

Morrisons, the UK’s fifth biggest supermarket group, has seen its share of the UK grocery market fall over the period as shoppers increasingly moved towards discounter rivals, leading to Aldi overtaking Morrisons as the UK’s fourth largest supermarket.

New chief executive Rami Baitiéh said the company is developing plans to “reinvigorate, refresh and strengthen” the firm.

Mr Baitiéh said despite having begun his role just a few months ago, it’s already clear the firm has an“abundance of talented colleagues, well-located shops, high-class food making operations and a real point of difference with our Market Street butchers, fishmongers, bakers, cheesemongers and deli counters”.

He added: “Reporting today our sixth consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales improvement is very positive.

“But there is so much more we can do, and together with my colleagues, we are developing plans to reinvigorate, refresh and strengthen Morrisons and to start a new chapter – which begins with our customers.”

Mr Baitiéh said they are “listening hard” to what customers tell them and taking action “across the business”.

He said Morrisons is beginning to see customer satisfaction scores improve, adding: “This will be the bedrock of our next chapter.”

Morrisons said its performance included a stronger end to the year, with like-for-like growth, excluding fuel, of 3.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, to £3.6billion.

Jo Goff, CFO, said: “This has been a year of steady progress as we continued to invest in price, customer service, loyalty and made further improvements in our own brand range and in quality.

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“We’ve made good progress on our working capital improvement process with a further £100 million in Q4, taking the total for the year to £300 million, more than half the £500 million multi-year target and ahead of our expectations.”

Morrisons announced then-chief executive David Potts would step down as boss of the supermarket after nine years in September 2023.

The firm confirmed Mr Baitiéh, the former chief of Carrefour France would take over from Mr Potts from November.

The announcement came a year after US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier and Rice bought the chain for around £7billion.