News
Morrisons suffers £1.1bn pre-tax loss, cuts 8,854 jobs
Although Morrisons posted revenues of £18.3bn for the year, the business incurred finance costs of £735m during the same period.
Company revenues for the 65 weeks to 30 October 2022 were £18.7bn, while its finance costs came to £593m. The fall in revenue from 2022 to 2023 was largely driven by a decline in fuel and other sales though.
Meanwhile, the supermarket reduced overall staff numbers by 8,854, going from 113,673 to 104,819. The number of store employees fell from 95,200 to 88,258 and manufacturing staff numbers declined form 8,599 to 7,865. Employee numbers across its distribution centres and head office also fell.
'Morrisons is uniquely positioned to grow'
This represents a second consecutive set of results where Morrisons has experienced large losses, with the retailer previously posting a £1.5bn pre-tax loss.
Morrisons was acquired by US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in October 2021 for a price of £7bn, but it has now amassed debts of £8.6bn, which are up from £3.2bn prior to the takeover.
According to the latest market share data published by Kantar on 18 February 2024, Morrisons holds the fifth largest UK supermarket with a share of 8.8%. It trails behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and now Aldi, which eclipsed Morrisons as the fourth largest retailer in September 2022.
Rami Baitiéh took over from David Potts as the Morrisons chief executive in November 2023 and the firm has since announced the sale of 337 petrol station forecourts to Motor Fuel Group in a deal worth £2.5bn.
Commenting on the state of the business following his appointment in September, Baitiéh said: “As a manufacturer, wholesaler and seller of food, Morrisons is uniquely positioned to grow in the coming years while remaining deeply focused on customer satisfaction.”
The results were filed on the Companies House page of Morrisons’ parent company Market Topco.
In other news, Glasgow brewer Tennent’s has collaborated with Zero Waste Scotland to validate its ongoing circular economy projects following a business-wide audit.
