'Disappointing' Morrison sees Christmas sales growth slow to a crawl

Published on Wednesday 12 January 2005 02:34

THE previously strongly-growing William Morrison supermarket chain could only deliver flat same-floorspace sales over the Christmas period, as it said store openings by rival chains had eaten into core sales.

The Bradford-based chain, which snapped up bigger rival Safeway last year to become Britain’s fourth biggest supermarket group, said the resulting 0.1 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to 9 January was "acceptable" in the short term.

Morrison said it remained encouraged by the progress at the former Safeway stores converted to the Morrison format, with sales 4.7 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

Bob Stott, Morrison’s joint managing director, said that the latest disappointing trading figures confirmed that the trading climate over Christmas and the New Year had been "fairly tough".

Nearly 50 Morrisons stores were hit by competition from the reopening of former Safeway stores bought by competitors.

The group has completed 45 of the 52 Safeway disposals required by the Office of Fair Trading following a review of its 3 billion acquisition.

Barclays Private Clients said the results looked "disappointing", but had to be seen in the context of strong comparatives for last year.

It said it found the "re-affirmation of full-year group profits reassuring".