Growth and refurbishment planned for supermarket chain
Morrisons has reported a rise in profits of 11.6% to £337m for the year ended 29 January 2017 – the supermarket’s first increase in five years.
Like-for-like sales grew 1.7% and total revenue grew 1.2% to £16.3bn, despite store closures.
Eight underperforming shops were closed in the year as part of the supermarket’s ongoing review of its estate. Overall, space throughout the portfolio fell by 48,000 sq ft, reflecting a reduction of 5%.
One new supermarket opened and five were refurbished and extended. It also acquired the freeholds of three short-lease shops during the second half of the year.
In a statement it said: “One component of our future growth will be opening new supermarkets, where we can enter a new catchment, and where we expect investment returns to exceed our stringent returns criteria. We intend to open a small number of supermarkets during 2018/19.”
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