Morrisons’ sales continue to fall despite early Easter supermarket boost

Despite this year’s early Easter providing a much needed boost for the UK’s supermarket sector, Bradford-headquartered Morrisons still saw a drop in sales and market share.

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 27 March 2016, show that supermarket sales have grown by 1.1% compared with the same period last year.

However, Morrisons experienced a 2.4% drop in sales while its market share also decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 10.5%.

These figures follow on from Morrisons posting an underlying pre-tax profit of £242m for the year ending 31 January, down over £100m from the previous year. Morrisons’ underlying pre-tax profit was £345m at the same period last year.

The supermarket chain has also announced the announcedthe closure of 11 stores across the country, putting 680 jobs at risk.

The whole of the supermarket sector is still trying to stay competitive against the highly successful German discounters, Aldi and Lidl.

According to Kantar Worldpanel’s data, Lidl remains the fastest growing supermarket, increasing sales by 17.7% to capture 4.4% of the market, while Aldi grew sales by 14.4% to reach a new record-high market share of 6.0%.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, commented: “An early Easter gave the market a sales boost of £152 million compared to last year, adding 0.6% to the overall growth rate.

“Britain’s love of all things sweet was in evidence, with 63% of households buying at least one chocolate egg during March, spending an average of £12 over the month. Over half of the population bought hot cross buns, while 15% purchased a fresh leg of lamb for their Easter celebrations.”

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