“We have made good initial progress with our strategy to fix, rebuild and grow Morrisons,” said the statement.
“During the first half, we continued to focus on listening to customers, improving capability and stabilising LFL [like-for-like] sales. The six priorities delivered many improvements.”
The six priorities were: Becoming more competitive, Serving customers better, Local solutions, Popular and useful services, Simply and speed up and Making core supermarkets strong again.
Becoming more competitive had led the retailer to continue cutting shoppers’ prices, it said. At the beginning of the month Morrisons announced it was chopping the price of its meat and poultry products by 12%.
Morrisons’ six priorities
- Becoming more competitive
- Serving customers better
- Local solutions
- Popular and useful services
- Simply and speed up
- Making core supermarkets strong again
Food and drink suppliers
This followed its pledge made in August to cut the price of 1,000 every day grocery items. This move would leave food and drink suppliers unaffected, a Morrisons spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
Serving customers better referred to Morrisons’ achieving a 4.3% rise in transactions achieved in the second quarter. Also, 99% of online orders were said to contain “exactly what customers ordered”.
Delivering on its Local solutions priority had led the retailer to introduce more than 178 local products – including 25 regional cheeses – into stores worldwide.
Its Popular and useful services priority prompted the business to install what was said to be the UK’s largest collection of Amazon lockers in its stores. Installing up to 10 Amazon lockers in stores every week will allow more customers to collect their online orders in Amazon stores.
Online orders
As part of its Simply and speed up priority, 5% of its unviable store space had been either sold or closed.
Serving customers better, Local solutions, Popular and useful services, Simply and speed up and Making core supermarkets strong again. Morrisons also said: “We simplified our relationship with suppliers – reducing the types of supplier income from 37 to three.”
Making core supermarkets strong again objective had sparked the introduction of more than 470 products in the new premium range The Best and a makeover for 28 stores.
Meanwhile, don’t miss ceo Dave Potts’s thank to “food makers” after the business posted rising sales and profits.
Morrisons’ six priorities: the progress claimed
1. Becoming more competitive: cut 4,598 prices this year. Improved ready meal quality
2. Serving customers better: number of transactions up by 4.3% in the second quarter
3. Local solutions: more than 178 local products were into stores across Britain, including the Yorkshire Tapas range
4. Popular and useful services: installing the UK’s largest collection of Amazon lockers in stores
5. Simply and speed up: “We simplified our relationship with suppliers – reducing the types of supplier income from 37 to three.”
6. Making core supermarkets strong again: More than 470 products were being launched in the new premium range The Best. Those included: Lobster and crab marcaroni cheese and salted caramel ice cream.
- Source: Morrisons