Morrisons rings up 7% rise in profits

Published on Thursday 12 March 2009 20:28

SUPERMARKET chain Morrisons yesterday posted a 7 per cent hike in full-year pre-tax profits to £655 million.

The UK's fourth-largest grocer announced it would share out a 34m bonus pot between its 124,000 staff – up by 13 per cent on the previous year – after the profits improvement.

Morrisons reported that like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, increased 7.9 per cent over the year to 1 February.

The group said it was attracting 550,000 more customers through its checkouts each week but added it was prepared for "extremely challenging" competition in the supermarket sector in the recession.

Sir Ian Gibson, who took over as chairman from founder Sir Ken Morrison last March, said: "These are challenging times for the UK economy, but while we are not complacent, we are confident that Morrisons' offer meets and is in tune with the demands of our customers and the economic background."

Morrisons' shares last night closed up 4 per cent at 255.5p.