UK supermarket Morrisons returns to underlying sales growth

LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) – British supermarket group Morrisons returned to underlying sales growth in its latest quarter, saying it was benefiting from a push to improve its price competitiveness.

The group, owned since 2021 by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, said on Thursday its like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, rose 0.1% in the 13 weeks to Jan. 29, its fiscal first quarter.

It said total revenue was up 3.4% to 4.71 billion pounds ($5.83 billion).

“Our market share has stabilised, our inflation rate is below our peers, and Morrisons’ traditional competitiveness, colour and dynamism is steadily returning to every part of the business,” said CEO David Potts.

He said the group was targeting 700 million pounds of cost savings over the next three years, enabling it to further invest in its loyalty programme, grow its convenience store business and mitigate the cost headwinds it faces.

($1 = 0.8079 pounds)

Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Kylie MacLellan

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