Morrisons hails ‘broad based progress’ as profits and revenues jump

For the 52 weeks ending October 27, 2024, Morrisons underlying EBITDA soared 11.2% to £835m, while full-year total revenues jumped 3.8% to £15.3bn, while group like-for-like sales for the full-year period were up 4.1%.

For the fourth quarter, revenues were over £3.7bn, up 4.9% on a like-for-like basis. Underling profits for the period were £275m – compared to £259m for the same period the previous financial year.

In the year, Morrisons completed the sale of its petrol forecourt business to MFG for £2.5bn in April 2024.

Operating cash flow was £401m in the full year, while debt has been reduced by 40% from its peak.

Morrisons noted it also made “good progress” throughout the year on availability, improving fresh availability by 4 percentage points.

Sales using Morrisons More Card grew to 68% at the end of the year and stand at 76% today.

The grocer extended its price match to the discounters throughout the year, which now covers over 500 essential and popular products.

The supermarket group has also continued to grow its convenience store estate, which now stands at over 1,600 stores across the country.

Chief executive Rami Baitiéh said: “This has been a year of urgent reinvigoration and positive progress for Morrisons. Customer transactions increased, market share grew from Q2 and we saw positive switching from our competitors.

“The improvements across the business have resulted in better availability in our stores, sharper prices, more effective promotions and a strong and growing loyalty scheme. This operational progress is now starting to be reflected in our financial performance, with full-year like-for-like sales up 4.1% and EBITDA up by 11.2%. We ended the year particularly strongly with Q4 like-for-like sales up 4.9% - the strongest like-for-like quarter for almost four years.

“The More Card is firmly established as a customer favourite after a stunning year with linked sales growing from 47% just 18 months ago to 76% today. We have introduced a rolling programme of around 2,500 deeply discounted More Card prices and points are now awarded on every product. In the two-week Christmas period around 3.5 million Morrisons Fivers were redeemed by customers.

“I want to thank everyone at Morrisons for their commitment and energy every day and for playing their part in the significantly improved performance that we are reporting today. Supermarkets, convenience, online, wholesale and Myton Food Group all contributed to the improving picture, helping us serve our customers better.”