Morrisons to get ‘leaner’ as sales slip

MORRISONS’ new boss David Potts said he was not yet ‘fully match- fit’ as Britain’s fourthbiggest grocer saw sales growth deteriorate in its latest quarter.

The former Tesco executive plans to turn around the ailing supermarket by focusing on fresher food and other services to appeal to shoppers. He suggested the firm is an ‘underdog’ and needs to rediscover its identify.

The company’s underlying firstquarter sales slipped 2.9pc, a fall from the 2.6pc decline seen in the previous three months.

In April, Morrisons said it would cut 700 head office jobs and yesterday revealed this would incur £30m to £40m in one-off costs.

Potts said he had good first impressions since joining seven weeks ago and that he wanted to create a ‘simpler, leaner, and costconscious business which acts at speed wherever possible’.

He added: ‘We want to recall our traditional values but applied to the modern world, to rediscover our identity.

‘The priority is to make the core supermarkets strong again.’

There have already been store closures, job loses and price cuts.

Morrisons has been late to join the fast-growing online and convenience markets. While Potts says these are not what he is focused on, they are still important elements of the business.

An online tie-up with delivery firm Ocado contributed to 1pc underlying sales growth.

Morrisons has faced stiff competition from Aldi and Lidl. It has hired another former Tesco executive, Darren Blackhurst, as group commercial director.

Veteran retail analyst Nick Bubb said: ‘It doesn’t sound as if many people in Bradford would vote for Dave Potts of the Morrisons Party if he can’t come up with something more insightful than “This is a business with many attributes, some unique”.’