British supermarket group Morrisons' underlying sales growth improved in its fourth quarter, which it said reflected better product availability, sharper prices, more effective promotions and a growing loyalty scheme.
The UK's fifth largest grocer, which has been owned by US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice since 2021, said its like-for-like sales rose 4.9% in its fourth quarter to 27 October, having been up 2.9% in its third quarter.
Morrisons said the quarter was its strongest since the start of 2021. The update did not cover the run-up to Christmas.
The latest monthly industry data, published earlier this month, showed Morrisons underperforming the sales growth of UK market leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury's, as well as discounters Aldi and Lidl in the holiday period.
The data from researcher Kantar showed Morrisons' sales up 0.4% in the 12 weeks to 29 December, ending 2024 with a UK grocery market share of 8.6%, down 20 basis points on the year.
Performance Not Good Enough: CEO
Former Carrefour France boss Rami Baitiéh joined Morrisons as CEO in November 2023, and last January said its performance was not good enough.
His turnaround strategy has focused on improving the retailer's price competitiveness, product availability and its 'More Card' loyalty programme. A scheme to price match Aldi and Lidl on key items was introduced in February.
Analysts said that since CD&R bought the company Morrisons has been hamstrung by debt, which the retailer said was £4.0 billion (€4.8 billion) at the end of October, down from a peak of £6.2 billion (€7.4 billion).
Morrisons said core earnings, or underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), its preferred metric, rose 11.2% to £835 million (€996.9 billion) in the year, on revenue up 3.8% to £15.3 billion (€18.3 billion).
“This has been a year of urgent reinvigoration and positive progress for Morrisons," Baitieh said.
