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Morrisons puts faith in further price cuts after another fall in sales

Published:  08 May, 2014

Morrisons like for like sales have declined by 7.1% in the first quarter, as the supermarket hopes its promised price cuts and revamped stores will sway consumers in its direction.

Morrisons like for like sales have declined by 7.1% in the first quarter, as the supermarket hopes its promised price cuts and revamped stores will sway consumers in its direction.

In the 13 weeks to May 4, 2014, total sales excluding fuel were down by 4.2%, with like for like sales down 7.1% .

Back in March the retailer announced plans to save £1 billion over the next three years in order to "strengthen our business and reinforce our core customer proposition". Since that time it has made "significant improvements" to store layouts and on May 1 it cut prices on 1,200 fresh food products, as the Big Four supermarkets step up their attempts to compete with market-stealing discounters.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said: "The plans we set out at our results in March are on track. The reaction of our customers to the 1,200 'I'm Cheaper' price cuts we announced last week has been very positive. Although it will take time for their full impact to be felt, we are confident that these meaningful and permanent reductions in our prices will enable our clear points of difference to resonate strongly with consumers."

So far wine has been a major focus for Morrisons - it kicked off online sales with a specialist wine site in 2012, but yesterday announced it would close the standalone site in order to focus on its total grocery offer Morrisons.com, which began operating in January 2014.

The retailer has been vocal about catching up to the competition after years of under-trading on wine. It said it believes there is a £100 million opportunity in wine in the coming years. 

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