Morrisons sales bounce back after cyberattack
Morrisons has hailed a bounce back in quarterly sales after a cyberattack disrupted trading earlier this year.
The UK's fifth-largest supermarket, owned by the US private equity company Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, said like-for-like sales rose 3.9 per cent in the second quarter.
That marks an improvement from 2.1 per cent growth in the previous quarter, when a ransomware attack at its supply chain software provider Blue Yonder severely disrupted product availability and forced price cuts across some lines.
Total sales rose 4.2 per cent to £3.9 billion in the three months to early June and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) climbed 7.2 per cent to £344 million for the first half of its financial year. The company does not disclose pre-tax profits.
Rami Baitiéh, who joined Morrisons in 2023 with a mandate to revitalise the business, said the supermarket had 'bounced back strongly' from the cyberattack despite operating in a 'challenging macro environment'.
Morrisons, which has about 500 supermarkets and some convenience stores, has struggled since it was bought by Clayton Dubilier & Rice in 2021 in a deal that added £6.6 billion of debt to its balance sheet.
Since his arrival in 2023, Baitiéh has focused on improving in-store execution, simplifying product ranges, enhancing fresh food displays and refreshing Morrisons' shop environment to improve customer perception.
'Value remains at the forefront of customers' minds,' he said. 'Throughout the first half we've worked hard on helping customers through these challenges with a rigorous focus on price, promotions and meaningful rewards for loyalty.'
Morrisons' More Card loyalty scheme has been a key part of this strategy, offering deeper discounts and personalised offers to attract price-sensitive shoppers amid high food inflation and dampened consumer sentiment.
The supermarket also said that it had made strong progress on trials in its branches aimed at enhancing the shopping experience. These include a revamped 'market street' area with farm shop-style merchandising and a more curated range of added-value products, alongside a new world foods section designed to improve the appeal to diverse customer bases. Early customer feedback had been very positive, the company said.
It is ramping up its presence in the convenience sector and opened 42 new franchise-owned Morrisons Daily shops in the quarter.
That brings the total number of convenience sites to more than 1,700, an increase of 120 year-on-year, and further expansion is planned.
Jo Goff, chief financial officer, noted 'broad-based progress' across the business. Cost savings are also on track, according to the company: it said that £58 million had been made in the quarter and more than £700 million had been achieved to date. The supermarket raised its cost-saving target to £1 billion by the end of 2026.
To sharpen its retail operations, Morrisons said it had signed a new partnership with a global analytics provider to mine commercial insights from its data. The aim is to improve pricing, promotions and range decisions at a time when competition among grocers remains intense.
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