(qlmbusinessnews.com via uk.reuters.com — Thur, 26th Jan, 2023) London, UK —
British supermarket group Morrisons forecast a return to earnings growth this year as a push to keep a lid on prices starts to win back cash-strapped shoppers.
In its last financial year to end-Oct, the group, owned since 2021 by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, reported a 15% drop in annual core earnings on underlying sales which fell 4.2%.
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But Morrisons' Chief Executive David Potts said price drops were starting to improve the group's performance, and sales rose in the run up to Christmas, giving the group confidence earnings would rise in the current financial year.
“Since October we have executed a rolling programme of meaningful price cuts, price freezes and fuel promotions for our customers and our competitive position has considerably sharpened,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Morrisons has struggled recently. It lost its status as Britain's fourth-largest grocer by market share to German-owned discounter Aldi last September, according to researcher Kantar.
The group posted adjusted EBITDA of 828 million pounds ($1.03 billion) in the year to the end of October 2022 on underlying sales of 18.39 billion pounds.
Reporting by James Davey
