Morrisons has kick-started a fightback with a new promotional campaign after reporting a fall in sales last week.

Morrisons has made a play for its rivals’ shoppers with a new 10% off discount card offering savings of up to £100 on shopping of up to £1,000 through to the end of December.

Morrisons said it has issued the cards in “a few areas to people who don’t shop at Morrison”, the Financial Times reported.

Morrisons last week ousted commercial director Richard Hodgson and chief executive Dalton Philips admitted that its marketing and promotions had not had the appeal he had hoped.

Rivals including Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi have consistently shown strong growth according to Kantar and Sainsbury’s reported a 5.4% uplift in underlying profit in the first half today.

Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said: “The seemingly random nature of the card issue as we have witnessed it does not suggest that only new  customers will necessarily carry such cards - the absence of an electronic  loyalty card makes such initiatives especially speculative for Morrison versus Sainsbury.”

Philips said last week: “We have highlighted that we are not getting our message across in the way it needs to. Our points of difference are unique. Who else does vertical integration? Who else has their own farms and florists? We are not shouting loud enough about these points of difference.”

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