UK: Morrisons increases store opening target
“Food quality, provenance and the issue of trust are at the forefront of consumers’ minds and these are all areas where Morrisons has something genuinely different to offer.
“We are ready to accelerate the development of our multi-channel presence and our convenience operation is gaining real momentum acquiring over 60 new sites in recent weeks alone. We are therefore increasing our target for store openings in the coming year by 40% and now plan to have 100 stores trading by the end of the year.
“Today’s announcement that we are launching an online food offer in 2014 is another important step in Morrisons strategy of being ‘Different and Better than Ever’. We may be a late entrant to the online food market but we have learnt from our involvement with Kiddicare and Fresh Direct.”
Morrisons chairman Sir Ian Gibson said: “Although this has been a difficult year in trading terms for Morrisons as we struggled to grow sales in a tough consumer environment, we have delivered a 7% improvement in underlying earnings per share and announced a 10% dividend increase, in line with our previously stated policy.”
Source: Morrisons
