“Keen pricing” helps Morrisons grow sales

Morrisons says its focus on fresh food and keen pricing strategy helped attract a record number of customers and boost like for like sales 2.4% during the third quarter.

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Total sales excluding fuel increased 4.6% and the supermarket says it attracted 450,000 more customers each week compared to last year, which helped sales grow ahead of the market.

Morrisons currently holds an 11.8% share of the grocery market, according to the latest Kantar figures. It outperformed the rest of the major supermarkets with 5.5% growth during October, ahead of the 4.6% market growth.

Rival Sainsbury’s reported like for like sales growth of 1.9% in the first half of the year and Tesco’s most recent sales figures saw a 0.5% fall in like for like sales.

In its interim statement Morrisons says: “Our focus on providing top-quality, fresh food and keen pricing, backed by an exciting and innovative range of promotions, has again met our customers’ expectations. We remain cautious on the overall economic environment and will continue to manage the business accordingly.”

Speaking to analysts this morning (10 November) Dalton Philips, Morrisons CEO said: “Our performance is clear evidence that our offer resonates with consumers.”

He added that one third of Morrisons customers have no disposable income left at the end of the month and so it has launched price promotions such as Price Crunch to relieve the pressure on household budgets and initiatives such as Morrisons Millions to “help lift the mood”.

During the period Morrisons launched its M Kitchen own label ready meals range, the first part of the overhaul of its entire own-label offer, and claims that it helped boost ready meal sales by 60%.

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