Supermarkets are now lapping very tough comparative figures. The nation rushed to stockpile food and drink during the latter part of first quarter 2020 and retailers are now reporting the same equivalent period for 2021. Under these circumstances, Morrisons’ 2.7% like-for-like sales growth excluding fuel isn’t too bad.
Importantly, wholesale accounted a good chunk of that growth, with Morrisons continuing to strengthen its position as a key supplier to the likes of Amazon and McColl’s.
Morrisons is now at the point where it needs to think about the next stage of its career, and we’ll find out its refreshed spending plans in September. This will almost certainly involve boosting capacity to fulfil online orders and seeing how it can further expand as a supply partner.
“Competition continues to be fierce in the industry and the latest push by many food sellers is for same-day, rapid speed deliveries. The economics of such a proposition are still being ironed out,” said AJ Bell’s Russ Mould.
“To win in the supermarket industry, companies need to excel on multiple fronts, namely value for money, service and adapting to customer needs. Customers can be very demanding and supermarket bosses cannot afford to upset anyone as there is always another food and drink seller around the corner waiting to sell their goods.
“Morrisons doesn’t seem to be putting a foot wrong in terms of these factors, but equally there is nothing that really makes it stand out from the crowd. In the long term that could be to its detriment.”
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