Morrison’s Black Friday boycott has been blamed for lacklustre Christmas performance, after the supermarket appeared to suffer a 2.6% drop in sales over the festive period.
Wm Morrison announced a 1.7% drop in like-for-like sales in the 22 weeks to January 5, doing better than the 2.2% fall predicted by analysts.
Third quarter results to November 3 show like-for-like sales down 1.2%, leading analysts at Bernstein to suggest that Christmas sales had slumped by 2.6%, while Shore Capital said 2.5%.
Morrisons has 494 supermarkets in the UK and 18 manufacturing and distribution sites.
The grocer has said it has taken “learnings” from the results, and will not be repeating its decision to boycott Black Friday discounting.
The rest of the ‘big four’ are due to announce Christmas trading fires this week.
