Picture of the day

The Duchess of Cambridge talks with a child in the water area of the playground during a visit to School 21 in Stratford, east London. The visit coincides with the rollout of Mentally Healthy Schools resources for secondary schools putting mental health at the heart of the school’s curriculum.

Morrisons has revealed that profits were cut by more than half over the past year after it was hit by £290 million in pandemic-related costs.

The firm told investors that profits before tax and exceptional costs slid by 50.7% to £201m for the year to January 31.

The Bradford-based retailer said it was impacted by higher-thanexpected pandemic costs after a recent increase in absences, as well as the £230m impact of handing its business rates relief back to the Treasury.

Group like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, jumped by 8.6% as it was buoyed by strong grocery demand, with 9% growth in a strong final quarter.

Morrisons said online sales tripled during the year as its capacity jumped five-fold.

It said online and wholesale operations are both profitable and it expects these to continue to improve.

The company expects to post higher profits for the new financial year.

Chief executive David Potts told reporters he wears the halving of its profits as a “badge of honour” as it was impacted by costs related to staff absences, hiring temporary workers, security and store safety measures.

“If we hadn’t made a profit it would have been OK as we did the right thing by our colleagues and customers,” he said.

A view of Kirkmichael in days gone by. Read more at the top of the left-hand column.