Morrisons profits jump but rivals squeeze sales

0 Profits at Morrisons have seen a big rise but rivals clawed back some of its impressive growth Morrisons, which has about 60 stores in Scotland, is set to post a 30 per cent jump in halftime profits when it reports this week, but rising competition slowed the pace of sales growth as the period advanced.

The City consensus is that the supermarket giant’s pretax profits will come in at £186 million on the back of samefloorspace sales growth of 2.6 per cent in the first six months of 2017.

But broker Jefferies has forecast a 1.7 per cent lift in second- quarter comparable sales, down from growth of 3.4 per cent in Q1.

George Salmon, equity analyst at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Competition has been intense to say the least, and (rival) Asda’s sales have recovered in recent months after another round of price cuts.

“Investors will be hoping this doesn’t mean customers have been migrating away from Morrisons stores, which would take the shine off the group’s own recovery.”