MORRISONS

'Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc' () is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The company is usually referred to as ''Morrisons'' and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies.

Contents

History

Morrisons today

Awards

Trading performance

UK market share

Takeover of Safeway

Store conversions and disposals

Store formats

Marketing and branding

Future

New Stores

Distribution

Financial performance

See also

External links

History

Morrisons was founded by William Morrison in 1899, initially as an egg and butter merchant in Rawson Market, Bradford, England. His son, Sir Ken Morrison is now executive chairman of the company.
From the early 1900s the company used the name 'Wm Morrison (Provisions) Limited'. Sir Ken took over the company in 1952, aged 21. In 1958 it opened a small shop in the city centre, followed by its first supermarket "Victoria", in the Girlington district of Bradford in 1961. In 1967 it became a public limited company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Morrisons today

Morrisons currently has 375 [1] superstores in the United Kingdom (including new store openings by the end of 2007), including those it retained following its purchase of Safeway plc ''(see below)''. Until 2004, Morrisons superstores were largely concentrated in the English Midlands and the north of England, but had expanded southwards, beginning with a store at Erith, Greater London, which opened in 1998 [2]. Most Morrisons stores operate from large superstore with a core focus on groceries and homewares, with fewer electronics, clothing and furnishings than the company's main supermarket rivals.
In May 2006, Sir Ken announced he is to step down as executive chairman in January 2008 after serving with the company for 56 years. The following month, it was announced that Marc Bolland, the Dutch chief operating officer of Heineken had been appointed as the new chief executive of Morrisons.
On 12 July 2007 Sir Ken Morrison announced the appointment of a non-executive Deputy Chairman "Sir Ian Gibson" (Chairman of Trinity Mirror PLC, Director of Greggs PLC, GKN PLC and Northern Rock PLC and President of Nissan Europe) who will take over as non-executive chairman when Sir Ken steps down no later than 13 March 2008
Morrisons is now one of just four supermarket chains that dominate the full-size superstore market in the United Kingdom. In descending order of size the other three are Tesco, ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart), and Sainsbury's. Morrisons strategy is based on doing the basics efficiently, selling predominantly food at lower prices, and doing so only from large stores. This is a different approach from the other three big chains: Tesco and Sainsbury's in particular have moved into "retail services" such as banking; the same two companies are expanding into the convenience store sector; and Tesco and ASDA place great emphasis on their non-food ranges and are experimenting with stand alone non-food stores.
The Morrison family currently own around 15.5% of the company, compared to the 18% they were previously thought to have recently held [3]. This was diluted from the near 40% they owned before buying Safeway plc in March 2004.
Some analysts have expressed concern that Morrisons value-focused marketing may not be as successful in affluent parts of Southern England, as they are in the company's traditional northern heartlands. At the 2005 annual results briefing, Sir Ken Morrison informed investors, "I don't know what a ''middle class shopper'' is". Despite this, Morrisons has a large and growing 'Best' range encompassing more premium food products and household accessories.
Morrisons supermarkets are currently split into 6 areas of the UK. Scotland (51), North (72), Midlands (75), South East (63) with one of these in Gibraltar, South Central (62) and the South West (51).

Awards

★ Supermarket Greetings Card Retailer of the Year 2007 [4]

★ Seafish Quality Award for all their Fresh Fish and Seafood counters(First company to receive) [5]

★ Store Manager of the Year 2004 (the third successive year that a Morrisons General Manager has won this award) [6]

★ Retail Product of the Year Award, Morrisons ‘Classic Walnut Dream Ice Cream’, 2004 [7]

★ Retail Week – Retailer of the Year 2004[8]

★ OLN Drinks Retailing Awards 2004 - Multiple Drinks Retailer[9]

★ Fresh Pasta Retailer of the Year, 2003 [10]

★ The Grocer Gold Award for Availability, 2003[11]

★ Fresh Pasta Retailer of the Year, 2002[12]

★ Multiple Beer Retailer of the Year, 2002[13]

★ Multiple Retailer of the Year, Retail Industry Awards 1999/2000[14]

★ Off Licence Retailer of the Year, Retail Industry Awards 2000[15]

★ Multiple Retailer of the Year, Off Licence of the Year Awards 2000[16]

★ Pizza Retailer of the Year 1999/2000[17]

★ Best Supermarket Fish Counter 1999/2000 (for an unprecedented fifth year running)[18]

★ Gold Award, ‘Winning Business’ magazine’s Retail Customer[19]

★ Service Survey 2000 – the only retailer to be awarded ‘Gold’[20]

★ Best Large Retailer, Disability Customer Service Awards 2000[21]

★ Fresh Produce Retailer of the Year 1998/99[22]

★ Off Licence Retailer of the Year 1998/99[23]

Trading performance

On 15 March 2007, Morrisons announced the outcome of its strategic review, as well as its preliminary results. Turnover was up 3% to £12.5bn (2006: £12.1bn), like for like sales (ex fuel) up 5.2% (2006: 2.4%), and profits jumped to £369.0m before taxation- a company record (2006: (£312.9m)). It also announced that most of the targets from its original three- year 'Optimisation Plan' had been met, including its plan to increase gross profit margin by 90bps, in one year.
The company is now going to spend £450m modernising itself.^[1]

UK market share

According to TNS Worldpanel, Morrisons's share of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 20 May 2007 was 11.17%, up 0.09% on 12 weeks to 22 April 2007.

Takeover of Safeway

On 8 March, 2004 the takeover by Morrisons of Safeway plc was completed (See the Safeway entry for full details of this deal). Stores under the Safeway brand were concentrated in the south of England and Scotland, thus giving Morrisons a nationwide presence for the first time. Morrisons proceeded to rebrand the supermarkets under its own name and the convenience stores were initially rebranded as "Safeway Compact". Most larger Safeway stores were converted to the Morrisons ''Market Street'' format, while others were sold off ''(see below)''.
The best parts of the Safeway own-brand offer, such as "The Best" range of high quality foods, and "Eat Smart" range of healthy foods, were adopted across the Morrisons chain, along with many former Safeway products. 'The Best' range offers a wide variety of more upmarket products (food or otherwise) which are available in all stores. These own-brands go alongside the original Morrisons store brands such as ''Bettabuy'', Morrisons' range of economy products. "The Best" was re-packaged and relaunched in September 2006 to compete with the increasingly diverse ranges of other supermarket chains. At the same time, Morrisons substantially increased its range of organic products as well as a new "Free-From" section of products.
In July 2004, Morrisons shocked the stock market with its first ever profits warning, largely caused by falling sales at Safeway stores. It emerged that Safeway had changed its accounting system just three weeks before the takeover and inflated its books by taking early bonus payments from suppliers, thus creating a deficit in excess of £180 million when the Morrisons accounting system was applied.
There was much initial controversy surrounding who was to blame for the early problems in integration. Morrisons and Safeway applied supplier commission at opposite ends of the scale - Safeway at the beginning of a deal and Morrisons at the very end. Safeway insiders claimed that the new accounting system had been in production for over two years prior to the takeover and said that Morrisons had full knowledge of the change in system before their takeover.
One problem for Morrisons was its radically different approach to people management. Under Safeway, store managers at a local level were given the power to plan their own promotions, stock certain items, vary prices according to local competition and even recruit additional staff; recognising the differing needs of different localities. Morrisons, on the other hand, operated a strict policy of uniformity across all its stores, with the same ranges and pricing regardless of location. While Morrisons retained its northern bias, this strategy worked well, but was less suited to the more diverse siting of former Safeway stores. The product policy has now been loosened slightly, although pricing is still centrally controlled and managers have nothing like the flexibility they enjoyed under Safeway.
It has since been admitted by Morrisons itself that the in-house finance team was ill-equipped for the task of integration and management of the newly enlarged business, which contributed in part to the early problems and profit warnings.
Converted stores now show sales up around 20 percent under the Morrisons fascia.

Store conversions and disposals

The programme of store conversions from Safeway to Morrisons was the largest of its kind in British retail history, focusing initially on the retained stores which were freehold, over 25,000 sq ft with separate car parks. Within a few weeks, Safeway carrier bags were replaced by those of Morrisons and the new owner's own-brand products began to appear in Safeway stores. In 2001, when discussing takeover speculation surrounding Safeway, Sir Ken Morrison described his then-rival as an "indigestible meal".
Originally 52 stores were to be compulsorily divested after the takeover, but this was reduced to 50 after one Safeway store in Sunderland was burned down and the lease ended on another in Leeds city centre. John Lewis Partnership purchased 19 to be part of its Waitrose chain, while J Sainsbury plc purchased a further 14, and Tesco bought 10 in October 2004.
Unlike other operators, most notably Tesco and Sainsbury's, Morrisons has chosen not to move into the convenience store sector. Further to this policy decision, it was announced in late 2004 that the 114 smaller 'Safeway Compact' stores were to be sold off to rival supermarket chain Somerfield in a two- part deal worth £260.2 million in total. One of the main reasons was the Morrisons 'Market Street' store format, which is better suited to larger stores, while Somerfield is better known for smaller outlets. Also, Morrisons' senior management had realised that the challenge of integrating the larger stores would keep them fully occupied in the short term.
In Northern Ireland Morrisons sold Safeway's stores to ASDA. This included a store in Bangor which actually opened after the Morrisons takeover.
Morrisons continued to sell and close stores not covered by the Competition Commission ruling, which it felt did not fit with the scale and layout of its Market Street format. In total, 254 stores were sold off by October 2006, which left the chain with 367 stores by November 2006. In all, 72 stores were sold that were neither part of the original Competition Commission ruling or part of the Safeway Compact portfolio.
One of the largest single purchases in 2005 was that of five stores by Waitrose. On July 18, 2006, a further six stores from the 'Rump' format were sold to Waitrose, including the former Safeway store in Hexham, Northumberland, which became the most northerly Waitrose branch in England.
In May 2005, Morrisons announced the termination of Safeway's joint venture convenience store/petrol station format with BP. Under the deal, the premises were split 50/50 between the two companies. Five sites were subsequently sold on to BP, while Morrisons sold the rest of its sites to Somerfield and Tesco, which both maintain a presence in this market sector.
Morrisons also sold Safeway's Channel Islands stores, in Guernsey and Jersey, to CI Traders. On the Isle of Man, the Douglas store was sold to Shoprite and the Ramsey store was sold to the Co-op. The Gibraltar store was originally marketed for sale, but has now been converted under the 'Rump' format. In November 2006, plans were submitted for the extension and redevelopment of the store in order to introduce the full Morrisons format[25].
The company also announced a £30 million one-off charge for the closure of former Safeway depots in Kent, Bristol and Warrington with the loss of 2,500 jobs. The Kent depot has since been sold to upmarket rival Waitrose, whilst Warrington was apparently sold to frozen food rival Iceland. Part of the Bristol depot has been sold off to Gist.

In total, Morrisons raised £1.36 billion from selling unwanted Safeway stores. The store conversion process was completed on 24 November 2005 when the Safeway fascia disappeared from the UK. The ongoing store divestment programme is now expected to conclude in 2007. As of December 2006, Morrisons is continuing to review its store portfolio. There are still some former Safeway stores earmarked for disposal and the 158 stores under 25,000 sq ft could be converted to a separate format called ''Morrisons Choice'', as it is currently being referred to internally. Some of these stores could also be re-modelled and/or extended.

Store formats

The format of most Morrisons superstores is called ''Market Street''. The meat is near or next to the butcher's counter, the delicatessen being traditionally named ''Provisions'' with cheese fridge nearby and a rotisserie counter named ''Oven Fresh''. There is a Pie Shop in most stores and a bell rings when a fresh batch comes out of the oven. The overall theme is based on an early 20th century street setting in the north of England running around the edge of the store, with more conventional aisles in the centre. Recently, moves have been made to combine counters in smaller ex-Safeway stores in the interests of efficiency - for example in Stevenston the pie shop has been combined with the Provisions counter. In original or fully converted stores, all counters are elaborately decorated to resemble a 19th century street scene.

Most Morrisons superstores are typically between 28,500 sq ft and 36,000 sq ft, with an increasing number above 36,000 sq ft, offering food, homewares, some essential clothing (ie. socks, underwear), cafés and petrol stations. Many stores are noticeably unique in appearance from those of rivals, as Morrisons tend to take more care with the external and internal appearance as well as layout than other operators. In purpose built stores, the fruit and veg section is first, but next comes the drinks section, tinned goods and other heavy items - the idea being that heavy goods are placed in the bottom of the trolley. Most chillers and freezers are right at the back of the store, helping reduce the time that food is kept out of the fridge. One exception to this is that there are chillers arranged near the front of the store, usually on an external wall, which contain products such as ready meals and a limited selection of wines, beers and ciders - products which one may wish to obtain in a hurry. Many other touches distinguish the stores from other brands - for example the wine section will often have a lower ceiling than the rest of the store, in the form of curved timber with extensive use of spotlights. The wines are arranged according to country of origin on attractive timber shelving. Most of these features are generally evident in the larger ex-Safeway stores (such as Anniesland in Glasgow), and all original Morrisons stores.
All new-build Morrisons stores include a clock tower (usually above the main entrance) as well as three flagpoles displaying the Morrisons logo (usually near the car park entrance), while many former Safeway stores incorporate a triangular expanse of glass within a "gable end" above the entrance. This can help differentiate former Safeway stores from purpose built Morrisons stores.
211 stores are above 25,000 sq ft. A number of Safeway stores retained by Morrisons were between 15,000 sq ft and 25,000 sq ft, with 144 stores currently in this format. These are referred to internally as the 'Choice' format, stores which do not have shopfront-style counter facades, but simply signs proclaiming the name. Morrisons hopes to replace or expand these stores to make room for the full 'Market Street' format in the future. There are also 14 stores under 15,000 sq ft, coming under the same internal sub-brand. [26].
The 'Rump' format are the same size as 'Choice' stores, but just carry the Morrisons outer logo signs, staff uniforms, product lines and IT Systems, while otherwise remaining largely as they did before the takeover of Safeway. Certain items within the stores, such as checkout dividers, car park signs and some internal signage, have simply had the Morrisons logo applied over the Safeway logo and can still clearly be identified as ''Safeway'', whereas all evidence of the old brand has been removed from other stores. These stores are earmarked for divestment or replacement in the very near future [27]. An example can be found in Giffnock, south Glasgow - where Morrisons are currently trying to obtain planning permission for a replacement store nearby.
All three formats trade simply as Morrisons, so there is no obvious way to tell them apart unless you know what to look for. A regular Morrisons shopper, used to the company's policy of uniform pricing and stock across all its stores, might notice a smaller product range at a "Choice" or "Rump" store, mainly due to the space constraints.

Marketing and branding

Morrisons products were marketed under two slogans, ''"More reasons to shop at Morrisons"'' and ''"Quality and Value"''. The ''more reasons'' campaign was backed up with separate adverts explaining numbered "reasons". There are usually a large range of special offers in each store. Until recently the television advertising campaigns for Morrisons had featured the voice of actor Sean Bean but recently this has changed to a middle class and southern English sounding womans voice. This has now once again changed (see below).

On 15 March 2007, following a strategic review, Morrisons announced that it will ditch its traditional branding and strapline in favour of a more modern brand image. CEO Marc Bolland announced: "Reflecting our nationwide presence and our many new customers, we will be making Morrisons the food specialist for everyone". [28].
The change will see the replacement of the current logo and the almost equally iconic ''"More reasons to shop at Morrisons"'' strapline, replaced with ''"fresh for you everyday"'' or ''"fresh choice for you"'' and "Food specialist for everyone". It will also involve the replacement of external signage, as well as changes to product packaging, point of sale, advertising, staff uniforms (replacing the old blue ties and bows to green ones) and distribution vehicles. The rationale behind the decision is the need for Morrisons to attract a wider national customer base, capitalising on its expanded geographical spread following the acquisition of Safeway. [29].
On 23 April 2007, Morrisons revealed its new brand identity. [30] The logo retains the familiar "M" symbol with its traditional yellow oval and "Morrisons" wording underneath, to preserve recognition, yet presents them in a subtly different style. The second stage of the rebrand will occur in early July and will include the introduction of the new tagline, as well as a new advertising campaign.
The first of these adverts will feature Denise Van Outen.

On 4 June 2007, Morrisons launched their recycling "recyclopedia" for Morrisons packaging [31] which is a new on-pack labelling scheme to help recycle more. It aims to help increase awareness of what can be recycled and where. The scheme has been welcomed by the national recycling campaign, Recycle Now, and was launched during Recycle Now Week.
On 23 July 2007, Morrisons officially launched their new look website[32] as well as their new advertising campaign. Their first TV advertisement under the "Fresh Choice for You" slogan appeared. This showed Denise van Outen travelling all over the country, and out to sea, with a Morrisons trolley, searching for sources of the finest ingredients. She then returns to Morrisons where everything is made freshly on Market Street. The soundtrack for the advert is Take That's hit Shine which is also accompanied by a voiceover by Jim Broadbent.[33] This is the start of a series of new adverts that will feature a range of different celebrities who will each promote the store. The new advertising campaign also unveiled a change to the new slogan, which is now "Fresh Choice for You".
Morrisons in-store advertising has become markedly more aggressive towards competitors - throughout July 2007 sandwich boards comparing prices directly with those of named competitors have appeared which give a favourable impression of Morrison's price levels. So far, a small basket of fresh foods has been compared for price with Asda, while on another the Sainsburys strapline "Try Something New Today" is mocked, suggesting that customers should try buying a trolley load of goods for a slightly lower price than Sainsburys, as well as receiving the same trolley load free as part of the "Buy One Get One Free" offers available.

Future

From 16 July 2007 Morrisons had started using new "Prepared for You" lablels, in a new initiative to inform customers that a lot of the fresh food is prepared in store. In July and August 2007 the whole of Market Street will be refreshed along with the new logo on till receipts and new badges for staff.
September 2007 will see the exterior logos appear at the stores.
By June 2005, Morrisons had issued five profit warnings since its takeover of Safeway. Sir Ken Morrison stood down as chairman of the operational board, but remained executive chairman of the main board. In July 2005, Morrisons released figures that suggested it may have turned the corner, with a 14% sales increase in converted Safeway stores. The last Safeway stores were converted by 24 November 2005, when the Safeway brand disappeared from the UK. [34]
In March 2006, Morrisons launched a three-year 'Optimisation Plan' aimed at cutting costs to ensure future profit recovery. This includes £60m worth of cost savings in distribution and support functions, as well as adapting the smaller 'Choice' format stores below 25,000 sq ft, representing 40% of the store estate, to fit with local demographic and cultures.
As of September 2006, the company's share price has risen above £2.40. The group turned pre-tax losses of (£82.1m) in the first half of 2005 into profits of £134.2m for the same period in 2006. Morrisons attributed this to cost-cutting, better distribution and the opening of its new integrated head office, as well as the completion of the Safeway conversion and divestment programmes[35].
Like for like sales, excluding fuel, rose 4.6% in the 25 weeks to 23 July 2006, increasing by a further 1.3% to 5.9% in the eight weeks after that despite the chain having closed or sold 66 stores.
On 4 September 2006, Marc Bolland replaced the long-serving 'Morrisons lifer' Bob Stott as Chief Executive. Sir Ken Morrison remains in his role as Chairman until January 2008.
In 2007 Hilmore House (Morrisons Head Office in Bradford) was named "Best Commercial Development" in the RICS Pro Yorkshire awards on the 31 May 2007 [36]. Hilmore House has also been judged as the "Best Commercial Office Development" in the North of England, meaning that it has been shortlisted for the British Council for Offices annual awards in October.

New Stores

The first store to open in 2007 was Crowborough on 29 January 2007, this was followed by Speke, Liverpool on the 9 July 2007.[37]The Speke store is first to trial the new logos and uniforms (green bows and ties instead of blue).

Further store openings due to take place in 2007 are:

Store Name	Expected Open Date
Johnstone	30 July 2007
Dundee	1 October 2007
York	15 October 2007
Llanelli	29 October 2007
Bristol	12 November 2007
Wednesbury	26 November 2007

Distribution

Morrisons operates a distribution network composed of in-house and third party contractors, the biggest external service provider being DHL Exel Supply Chain. They run a network of regional distribution centres and depots serving stores across the country, include Wakefield J41 Distribution Centre, Gadbrook Park in Northwich, Cheshire, Stockton Distribution Centre, Latimer Park and Corby Distribution Centre.
Through Wm Morrison Produce Ltd fresh produce, plants and flowers are delivered into temperature controlled warehouses and packing plants in Cheshire, Northampton and Yorkshire as well as in Holland, for prompt onward delivery to stores. Fruit and Veg is mainly supplied by Bos Brothers Fruit and Vegetables BV (owned by Morrisons) located in the Netherlands.
Morrisons owns Farmer's Boy food factory (in Bradford), producing pizzas, pies, cooked meats and sausages, as well as packing cheese and bacon for sales in stores, as well as operating two meat processing facilities (Lancashire,(''Neerock Limited'') and Aberdeen) where beef, pork and lamb are prepared and supplied direct to stores.
Morrisons also used Holsa Limited to provide some of the companies packaging (company owned).
In 2005 Morrisons purchased part (around 80%) of the collapsed Rathbones Bakeries operation for £15.5m which make Rathbones and Morrisons bread.
The result of all this is a highly vertically integrated company structure - unique amongst the "big four" supermarket chains in the UK and giving potential for a more efficient business. This is highlighted by Morrisons making a 2006 profit almost as big as the Sainsburys chain, which has a market share 50% greater.

Financial performance

52/3 weeks to	Turnover (£'m)	Profit/(loss) before tax (£'m)	Profit/(loss) after tax (£'m)
4 February 2007	12,462	369.0	247.6
29 January 2006	12,115	(312.9)	(250.3)
30 January 2005	12,116	193.0	105.0
1 February 2004	4,944	319.9	197.6
2 February 2003	4,290	282.5	186.3
3 February 2002	3,915	243.0	143.7
4 February 2001	3,496	219.1	120.0
29 January 2000	2,969	189.2	103.1

See also

★ Supermarkets in the United Kingdom

External links

★ Company website

★ Morrison's problems ''Daily Telegraph'', June 2005

★ Morrisons plunges deep into red BBC, 20 October 2005.

★ Sir Ken has grocer back on track ''The Guardian'', 23 February 2006

★ Green leaves Safeway door open; Guardian Unlimited; 31 October 2003

★ Morrisons in £3bn bid for Safeway; BBC; 15 December 2003.

★ John Lewis buys stores from grocer Morrison; Reuters, 25 March 2004

★ Morrisons turns off Safeway supply chain systems; ''Computing'', 29 June 2005

★ Off-the-shelf systems stack up at Morrisons; ''Computer Weekly'', 20 March 2007

★ Safeway disappears after 43 years BBC News, 23 November 2005

★ Morrisons buys Rathbones Bakeries Guardian Unlimited 3 May 2005

★ Morrisons faces strike action on supply chain IT; ''Computing'', 17 August 2005