Morrisons to close 33 stores after slumping to £792 million loss

Paul Cockerton , Graeme Evans
12 March 2015
Mirror UK
The chain has been hit by falling sales while it also wrote down the value of its store estate in the face of tough market conditions
Supermarket Morrisons will close 33 stores and axe at least 300 jobs after slumping to a loss of £792 million.
The chain has been hit by falling sales while it also wrote down the value of its store estate in the face of tough market conditions.
Underlying profits – excluding the £1.3 billion one-off property hit – fell 52% to £345 million in the year to February 1.
It announced that it will close 23 under-performing M Local branches during the current financial year, but has not revealed which stores will go.
The Bradford-based chain recently disclosed plans to shut 10 smaller supermarket this year.
The results come days before new chief executive David Potts, who has more than 40 years retailing experience at Tesco, takes his post.
Mr Potts replaces former boss Dalton Philips, who was ousted a year after the announcement of a three-year £1 billion programme to cut prices to fight the supermarket price war. Mr Phillips had led the retailer since 2010.
Chairman Andrew Higginson said: “Last year’s trading environment was tough and we don’t expect any change this year.
“However, Morrisons is a strong, distinctive business.”