Morrisons

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

File:Morrisonslogo.png
Company type	Public LSE: MRW
Industry	Retail (Grocery)
Founded	1899
Headquarters	Bradford, England, UK
Key people	Sir Ian Gibson, Non-Executive Chairman Marc Bolland Chief Executive
Products	Groceries, consumer goods
Revenue	£12,462 million (2007)
Operating income	£423 million (2007)
Net income	£248 million (2007)
Number of employees	118,880
Website	www.morrisons.co.uk

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc (LSE: MRW) is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The company is usually referred to as Morrisons, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies. Morrisons market share as of January 2008 is at 11.4%, making it the smallest of the "Big Four" supermarkets, behind Tesco (31.5%), ASDA (16.7%) and Sainsbury's (16.4%), but far ahead of fifth place Waitrose which has a share of 3.9%.

Founded in 1899 by William Morrison in Bradford, England, Morrisons was for many years focused in the north of England. With the takeover of Safeway in 2004, the company expanded southwards, and now has a total of 375 superstores across the UK.

History

Morrisons was founded by William Morrison in 1899, initially as an egg and butter merchant in Rawson Market, Bradford, England. His son, Sir Ken Morrison was chairman of the company until March 2008 when he officially resigned as chairman.

From the early 1900s the company used the name Wm Morrison (Provisions) Limited. Sir Ken took over the company in 1952, aged 21. In 1958 it opened a small shop in the city centre, followed by its first supermarket "Victoria", in the Girlington district of Bradford in 1961. In 1967 it became a public limited company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Morrisons Today

Morrisons store in Morecambe, Lancashire

Morrisons in Reigate, Surrey

Morrisons in Horsforth, Leeds

Morrisons currently has 375 superstores in the United Kingdom (including new store openings by the end of 2007), including those it retained following its purchase of Safeway plc (see below). Until 2004, Morrisons superstores were largely concentrated in the English Midlands and the North of England, but had expanded southwards, beginning with a store at Erith, Greater London, which opened in 1998 . Most Morrisons stores operate from large superstores with a core focus on groceries and homewares, with fewer electronics, clothing and furnishings than the company's main supermarket rivals.

In May 2006, Sir Ken Morrison announced he intended to step down as executive chairman in January 2008 after 56 years with the company. The following month it was announced that Marc Bolland, the Dutch chief operating officer of Heineken International had been appointed as the new chief executive of Morrisons.

On 12 July 2007 Morrisons announced the appointment of a non-executive Deputy Chairman Sir Ian Gibson (Chairman of Trinity Mirror PLC, Director of Greggs PLC, GKN PLC and Northern Rock PLC and President of Nissan Europe) who will take over as non-executive chairman when Sir Ken steps down no later than 13 March 2008. Morrisons is now one of just four supermarket chains that dominate the full-size superstore market in the United Kingdom. In descending order of size the other three are Tesco, ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart), and Sainsbury's. Morrisons strategy is based on doing the basics efficiently, selling predominantly food at lower prices, and doing so only from large stores. This is a different approach from the other three big chains: Tesco and Sainsbury's in particular have moved into "retail services" such as banking, insurance etc; the same two companies are expanding into the convenience store sector with Sainsbury's recently taking over Jacksons Stores[2]; and Tesco and ASDA place great emphasis on their non-food ranges and are experimenting with stand alone non-food stores.

The Morrison family currently own around 15.5% of the company, compared to the 18% they were previously thought to have held . This was diluted from the near 40% they owned before buying Safeway plc in March 2004.

Some analysts have expressed concern that Morrisons value-focused marketing may not be as successful in affluent parts of Southern England, as they are in the company's traditional northern heartlands. At the 2005 annual results briefing, Sir Ken Morrison informed investors, "I don't know what a 'middle class shopper' is". Despite this, Morrisons has a large and growing 'The Best' range encompassing more premium food products and household accessories .

Morrisons supermarkets are currently split into 6 areas of the UK. Scotland (51), North (72), Midlands (75), South East (63) with one of these in Gibraltar, South Central (62) and the South West (51).

According to CACI, as of 2006, Morrison's has market dominance in 10 postcode areas; SY (Shrewsbury), LD (Llandrindod Wells), WS (Walsall), TS (Cleveland), TD (Galashiels), BD (Bradford), HG (Harrogate), LS (Leeds), WF (Wakefield) and HD (Huddersfield).

Awards

Morrisons in Wellington, Shropshire.

2008

• Retailer of the Year

2007

• Fresh Pasta Retailer of the Year [3]
• Frozen Pizza Retailer of the Year [4]
• Supermarket Greetings Card Retailer of the Year [5]
• Fresh Flower Retailer of the Year [6]
• Training Initiative of the Year [7]
• Store Manager of the Year [8]
• The Grocer Customer Service Award

[9]

• The Grocer Best Availibity Award [10]
• Grocer Own Label Excellence Awards [11]
• Seafish Quality Award for all their Fresh Fish and Seafood counters [12]

2004

• Store Manager of the Year [13]
• Retail Product of the Year Award, Morrisons ‘Classic Walnut Dream Ice Cream’ [14]
• Retail Week – Retailer of the Year [15]
• OLN Drinks Retailing Awards - Multiple Drinks Retailer[16]

2003

• Fresh Pasta Retailer of the Year [17]
• The Grocer Gold Award for Availability [18]

2002

• Fresh Pasta Retailer of the Year, [19]
• Multiple Beer Retailer of the Year, [20]

2000

• Multiple Retailer of the Year, Retail Industry Awards [21]
• Off Licence Retailer of the Year, Retail Industry Awards [22]
• Multiple Retailer of the Year, Off Licence of the Year Awards [23]
• Pizza Retailer of the Year [24]
• Best Supermarket Fish Counter [25]
• Gold Award, ‘Winning Business’ magazine's Retail Customer[26]
• Service Survey – the only retailer to be awarded ‘Gold’[27]
• Best Large Retailer, Disability Customer Service Awards [28]

1999

• Fresh Produce Retailer of the Year [29]
• Off Licence Retailer of the Year [30]

Trading performance

On 15 March 2007, Morrisons announced the outcome of its strategic review, as well as its preliminary results. Turnover was up 3% to £12.5bn (2006: £12.1bn), like for like sales (ex fuel) up 5.2% (2006: 2.4%), and profits jumped to £369.0m before taxation- a company record (2006: (£312.9m)). It also announced that most of the targets from its original three- year 'Optimisation Plan' had been met, including its plan to increase gross profit margin by 90bit/s, in one year.

The company is now going to spend £450m modernising itself.

UK market share

UK, 4th March 2008 -The latest TNS Worldpanel grocery market share figures, published today for the 12 weeks ending 24th February 2008 show that the Morrisons recent growth, far from being a flash in the pan, has continued with a repeat of the 11% growth rate we saw last period. This has been driven particularly by increasing shopper numbers and, as a result, the share has lifted to 11.6% (a record for the Morrisons fascia) from 11.1% a year ago.

The market continues to advance strongly although it must be admitted that some of this value growth must be due to food price inflation. This factor, together with the Morrisons advance, places pressure on other retailers to keep up. There is evidence of this pressure in the competing outlets’ share performance, notably for Tesco which has seen its share dip from 31.3% a year ago to 30.9% today.

Takeover of Safeway

Morrisons market share decreased after its purchase of Safeway, but it eventually grew again after the store disposals and conversions.

On 8 March, 2004 the takeover by Morrisons of Safeway plc was completed (See the Safeway entry for full details of this deal). Stores under the Safeway brand were concentrated in the south of England and Scotland, thus giving Morrisons a nationwide presence for the first time. Morrisons proceeded to rebrand the supermarkets under its own name and the convenience stores were initially rebranded as "Safeway Compact". Most larger Safeway stores were converted to the Morrisons Market Street format, while others were sold off (see below).

The best parts of the Safeway own-brand offer, such as "The Best" range of high quality foods, and "Eat Smart" range of healthy foods, were adopted across the Morrisons chain, along with many former Safeway products. 'The Best' range offers a wide variety of more upmarket products (food or otherwise) which are available in all stores. These own-brands go alongside the original Morrisons store brands such as Bettabuy (now Value), Morrisons' range of economy products. "The Best" was re-packaged and relaunched in September 2006 to compete with the increasingly diverse ranges of other supermarket chains. At the same time, Morrisons substantially increased its range of organic products as well as a new "Free-From" section of products.

In July 2004, Morrisons shocked the stock market with its first ever profits warning, largely caused by falling sales at Safeway stores. It emerged that Safeway had changed its accounting system just three weeks before the takeover and inflated its books by taking early bonus payments from suppliers, thus creating a deficit in excess of £180 million when the Morrisons accounting system was applied.

There was much initial controversy surrounding who was to blame for the early problems in integration. Morrisons and Safeway applied supplier commission at opposite ends of the scale - Safeway at the beginning of a deal and Morrisons at the very end. Safeway insiders claimed that the new accounting system had been in production for over two years prior to the takeover and said that Morrisons had full knowledge of the change in system before their takeover.

One problem for Morrisons was its radically different approach to people management. Under Safeway, store managers at a local level were given the power to plan their own promotions, stock certain items, vary prices according to local competition and even recruit additional staff; recognising the differing needs of different localities. Morrisons, on the other hand, operated a strict policy of uniformity across all its stores, with the same ranges and pricing regardless of location. While Morrisons retained its northern bias, this strategy worked well, but was less suited to the more diverse siting of former Safeway stores. The product policy has now been loosened slightly, although pricing is still centrally controlled and managers don't have as much flexibility as they had under Safeway.

It has since been admitted by Morrisons itself that the in-house finance team was ill-equipped for the task of integration and management of the newly enlarged business, which contributed in part to the early problems and profit warnings.

Converted stores now show sales up around 20 percent under the Morrisons fascia.

Store conversions and disposals

The programme of store conversions from Safeway to Morrisons was the largest of its kind in British retail history, focusing initially on the retained stores which were freehold, over 25,000 sq ft with separate car parks. Within a few weeks, Safeway carrier bags were replaced by those of Morrisons and the new owner's own-brand products began to appear in Safeway stores. In 2001, when discussing takeover speculation surrounding Safeway, Sir Ken Morrison described his then-rival as an "indigestible meal".

Originally 52 stores were to be compulsorily divested after the takeover, but this was reduced to 50 after one Safeway store in Sunderland was burned down and the lease ended on another in Leeds city centre. John Lewis Partnership purchased 19 to be part of its Waitrose chain, while J Sainsbury plc purchased a further 14, and Tesco bought 10 in October 2004.

Unlike other operators, most notably Tesco and Sainsbury's, Morrisons has chosen not to move into the convenience store sector. Further to this policy decision, it was announced in late 2004 that the 114 smaller 'Safeway Compact' stores were to be sold off to rival supermarket chain Somerfield in a two- part deal worth £260.2 million in total. One of the main reasons was the Morrisons 'Market Street' store format, which is better suited to larger stores, while Somerfield is better known for smaller outlets. Also, Morrisons' senior management had realised that the challenge of integrating the larger stores would keep them fully occupied in the short term.

In Northern Ireland Morrisons sold Safeway's stores to ASDA. This included a store in Bangor which actually opened after the Morrisons takeover.

Morrisons continued to sell and close stores not covered by the Competition Commission ruling, which it felt did not fit with the scale and layout of its Market Street format. In total, 254 stores were sold off by October 2006, which left the chain with 367 stores by November 2006. In all, 72 stores were sold that were neither part of the original Competition Commission ruling or part of the Safeway Compact portfolio.

One of the largest single purchases in 2005 was that of five stores by Waitrose. On July 18, 2006, a further six stores from the 'Rump' format were sold to Waitrose, including the former Safeway store in Hexham, Northumberland, which became the most northerly Waitrose branch in England.

In May 2005, Morrisons announced the termination of Safeway's joint venture convenience store/petrol station format with BP. Under the deal, the premises were split 50/50 between the two companies. Five sites were subsequently sold on to BP, while Morrisons sold the rest of its sites to Somerfield and Tesco, which both maintain a presence in this market sector.

Morrisons also sold Safeway's Channel Islands stores, in Guernsey and Jersey, to CI Traders. On the Isle of Man, the Douglas store was sold to Shoprite and the Ramsey store was sold to the Co-op. The Gibraltar store was originally marketed for sale, but has now been converted under the 'Rump' format. In November 2006, plans were submitted for the extension and redevelopment of the store in order to introduce the full Morrisons format .

The company also announced a £30 million one-off charge for the closure of former Safeway depots in Kent, Bristol and Warrington with the loss of 2,500 jobs. The Kent depot has since been sold to upmarket rival Waitrose, whilst Warrington was apparently sold to frozen food rival Iceland. Part of the Bristol depot has been sold off to Gist.

Morrisons store in Consett, County Durham, a former Safeway branch

In total, Morrisons raised £1.36 billion from selling unwanted Safeway stores. The store conversion process was completed on 24 November 2005 when the Safeway fascia disappeared from the UK. The ongoing store divestment programme is now expected to conclude in 2007. As of December 2006, Morrisons is continuing to review its store portfolio. There are still some former Safeway stores earmarked for disposal and the 158 stores under 25,000 sq ft could be converted to a separate format called Morrisons Choice, as it is currently being referred to internally. Some of these stores could also be re-modelled and/or extended.

In 2007, Morrisons opened a new Distribution Centre in Swindon and announced that it had bought the Gerber Foods site in Burnham on Sea in Somerset, for redevelopment as a fresh produce packing facility.

Store formats

The format of most Morrisons superstores is called Market Street. The meat is near or next to the butcher's counter, the delicatessen being traditionally named Provisions with cheese fridge nearby and a rotisserie counter named Oven Fresh. There is a Pie Shop in most stores and a bell rings when a fresh batch comes out of the oven. The overall theme is based on an early 20th century street setting in the north of England running around the edge of the store, with more conventional aisles in the centre. Recently, moves have been made to combine counters in smaller ex-Safeway stores in the interests of efficiency - for example in Stevenston the pie shop has been combined with the Provisions counter, and in Erskine the Fishmongers has been combined with the Butchers counter. In original or fully converted stores, all counters are elaborately decorated to resemble a 19th century street scene. Also, in some stores (for example: Bangor, North Wales and Erskine) the Customer Service Desk has been combined with the Tobacco/Newspaper Counter and in some stores (for example: Denbigh, North Wales) there is no Customer Service Desk at all.

Morrisons store with clock tower, Doxford Park, Sunderland.

Most Morrisons superstores are typically between 28,500 sq ft and 36,000 sq ft, with an increasing number above 36,000 sq ft, offering food, homewares, some essential clothing (ie. socks, underwear), cafés and petrol stations. Many stores are noticeably unique in appearance from those of rivals, as Morrisons tend to take more care with the external and internal appearance as well as layout than other operators. In purpose built stores, the fruit and veg section is first, but next comes the drinks section, tinned goods and other heavy items - the idea being that heavy goods are placed in the bottom of the trolley. Most chillers and freezers are right at the back of the store, helping reduce the time that food is kept out of the fridge. One exception to this is that there are chillers arranged near the front of the store, usually on an external wall, which contain products such as ready meals and a limited selection of wines, beers and ciders - products which one may wish to obtain in a hurry. Many other touches distinguish the stores from other brands - for example the wine section will often have a lower ceiling than the rest of the store, in the form of curved timber with extensive use of spotlights. The wines are arranged according to country of origin on attractive timber shelving. Most of these features are generally evident in the larger ex-Safeway stores (such as Anniesland in Glasgow), and all original Morrisons stores.

All original Morrisons stores include a clock tower above the main entrance as well as three flagpoles displaying the Morrisons logo near the car park entrance (with the exception of the Erskine store which was built as an ASDA before being bought at the last minute by Morrisons), while many former Safeway stores incorporate a triangular "gable end", glass or otherwise, above the entrance (see above picture of store in Consett). This can help differentiate former Safeway stores from purpose built Morrisons stores, although it is often obvious from the internal layout - Morrisons use the entire depth of the store for their fruit and veg section, while Safeway generally used half the depth and then placed chillers in the remaining space.

211 stores are above 25,000 sq ft. A number of Safeway stores retained by Morrisons were between 15,000 sq ft and 25,000 sq ft, with 144 stores currently in this format. These are referred to internally as the 'Choice' format, stores which do not have shopfront-style counter facades, but simply signs proclaiming the name. Morrisons hopes to replace or expand these stores to make room for the full 'Market Street' format in the future. There are also 14 stores under 15,000 sq ft, coming under the same internal sub-brand.

The 'Rump' format are the same size as 'Choice' stores, but just carry the Morrisons outer logo signs, staff uniforms, product lines and IT Systems, while otherwise remaining largely as they did before the takeover of Safeway. Certain items within the stores, such as checkout dividers, car park signs and some internal signage, have simply had the Morrisons logo applied over the Safeway logo and can still clearly be identified as Safeway, whereas all evidence of the old brand has been removed from other stores. These stores are earmarked for divestment or replacement in the very near future . An example can be found in Giffnock, south Glasgow - where Morrisons are currently building a much larger replacement store nearby.

All three formats trade simply as Morrisons, so there is no obvious way to tell them apart unless you know what to look for. A regular Morrisons shopper, used to the company's policy of uniform pricing and stock across all its stores, might notice a smaller product range at a "Choice" or "Rump" store, mainly due to the space constraints.

Marketing and branding

Morrisons products were marketed under two slogans, "More reasons to shop at Morrisons" and "Quality and Value". The more reasons campaign was backed up with separate adverts explaining numbered "reasons". There are usually a large range of special offers in each store. Until recently the television advertising campaigns for Morrisons had featured the voice of actor Sean Bean but recently this has changed to a middle class and southern English sounding womans voice. This has now once again changed (see below). They are now fronted by former Liverpool defender and BBC Sport pundit Alan Hansen.

File:Morrisonsoldlogo pre2007.png

Old Morrisons logo, still widely used.

On 15 March 2007, following a strategic review, Morrisons announced that it will ditch its traditional branding and strapline in favour of a more modern brand image. CEO Marc Bolland announced: "Reflecting our nationwide presence and our many new customers, we will be making Morrisons the food specialist for everyone".

The change will see the replacement of the current logo and the almost equally iconic "More reasons to shop at Morrisons" strapline, replaced with "fresh for you everyday" or "fresh choice for you" and "Food specialist for everyone". It will also involve the replacement of external signage, as well as changes to product packaging, point of sale, advertising, staff uniforms (replacing the old blue ties and bows to green ones) and distribution vehicles. The rationale behind the decision is the need for Morrisons to attract a wider national customer base, capitalising on its expanded geographical spread following the acquisition of Safeway.

On 23 April 2007, Morrisons revealed its new brand identity. The logo retains the familiar "M" symbol with its traditional yellow oval and "Morrisons" wording underneath, to preserve recognition, yet presents them in a subtly different style. The second stage of the rebrand will occur in early July and will include the introduction of the new tagline, as well as a new advertising campaign. The first of these adverts will feature Denise Van Outen.

On 4 June 2007, Morrisons launched their recycling "recyclopedia" for Morrisons packaging which is a new on-pack labelling scheme to help recycle more. It aims to help increase awareness of what can be recycled and where. The scheme has been welcomed by the national recycling campaign, Recycle Now, and was launched during Recycle Now Week.

On 23 July 2007, Morrisons officially launched their new look website[31] as well as their new advertising campaign. Their first TV advertisement under the "Fresh Choice for You" slogan appeared. This showed Denise van Outen travelling all over the country, and out to sea, with a Morrisons trolley, searching for sources of the finest ingredients. She then returns to Morrisons where everything is made freshly on Market Street. The soundtrack for the advert is Take That's hit Shine which is also accompanied by a voiceover by Jim Broadbent. This is the start of a series of new adverts that will feature a range of different celebrities who will each promote the store. The new advertising campaign also unveiled a change to the new slogan, which is now "Fresh Choice for You".

Morrisons in-store advertising has become markedly more aggressive towards competitors - throughout July 2007 sandwich boards comparing prices directly with those of named competitors have appeared which give a favourable impression of Morrison's price levels.

All Morrison's own-brand product packaging is being refreshed with the new logo. The Best's packaging has now changed in colour from black to a dark green, while the Bettabuy brand has been replaced with Morrisons Value, with yellow and green packaging.

Changes

From 16 July 2007 Morrisons started using new "Prepared for You" labels, in a new initiative to inform customers that a lot of the fresh food is prepared in store. In July and August 2007 the whole of Market Street was refreshed along with the new logo on till receipts and new badges for staff.

September 2007 saw the exterior logos appear at the stores.

By June 2005, Morrisons had issued five profit warnings since its takeover of Safeway. Sir Ken Morrison stood down as chairman of the operational board, but remained executive chairman of the main board. In July 2005, Morrisons released figures that suggested it may have turned the corner, with a 14% sales increase in converted Safeway stores. The last Safeway stores were converted by 24 November 2005, when the Safeway brand disappeared from the UK.

In March 2006, Morrisons launched a three-year 'Optimisation Plan' aimed at cutting costs to ensure future profit recovery. This includes £60m worth of cost savings in distribution and support functions, as well as adapting the smaller 'Choice' format stores below 25,000 sq ft, representing 40% of the store estate, to fit with local demographic and cultures.

As of September 2006, the company's share price has risen above £2.40. The group turned pre-tax losses of (£82.1m) in the first half of 2005 into profits of £134.2m for the same period in 2006. Morrisons attributed this to cost-cutting, better distribution and the opening of its new integrated head office, as well as the completion of the Safeway conversion and divestment programmes.

Like for like sales, excluding fuel, rose 4.6% in the 25 weeks to 23 July 2006, increasing by a further 1.3% to 5.9% in the eight weeks after that despite the chain having closed or sold 66 stores.

On 4 September 2006, Marc Bolland replaced the long-serving 'Morrisons lifer' Bob Stott as Chief Executive. Sir Ken Morrison remained in his role as Chairman until March 2008, when he was succeeded by Sir Ian Gibson.

File:Speke1.jpg

The New Morrisons at Speke

New store openings

The first store to open in 2007 was Crowborough on 29 January 2007, this was followed by Speke, Liverpool on 9 July 2007. The Speke store is first to trial the new logos and uniforms (green bows and ties instead of blue). A second store in York, this one in the city centre itself, was opened. A new store was also opened in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

A new Morrisons store in Dundee opened on the 29 October spearheaded by Tash Gunter, on the same day the Llanelli store opened. A new store in Bristol opened on the 12 November and Wednesbury on 26 November 2007.

In 2008 Morrisons will open 8 new stores, including Giffnock, Glasgow (replacing a smaller store) (February), Kidderminster (another replacement store), Whitefield, in Bury, Gtr Manchester (September), Granton in Edinburgh, Holyhead in Isle of Anglesey. They are also planning to re-open two smaller former Safeway stores @ Blandford Forum and Northallerton and they have purchased the Somerfield store in Gorleston-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk which will re-open after an extensive refit. There are several stores are planned for opening in 2009 (Openshaw (Manchester), Westdenton (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Connah's Quay Nr Shotton and New Brighton (Wirral). It is replacing an existing store in Rothwell but no date has been published for opening. There are also plans for a store at Blaydon in Gateshead.

In the Grocer Magazine in June 2008, the CEO was reported to have said that whether or not they succeed in buying any of the larger Somerfield stores from the Co-operative Group should their takeover be successful, Morrisons is now committed to building more smaller stores (av 20,000 sq ft)on the lines of Giffnock and Barnard Castle.

Distribution

Morrisons operates a distribution network composed of in-house and third party contractors, the biggest external service provider being DHL Exel Supply Chain. They run a network of regional distribution centres and depots serving stores across the country, include Wakefield J41 Distribution Centre, Gadbrook Park in Northwich, Cheshire, Stockton Distribution Centre, Latimer Park, Corby Distribution Centre and Bellshill Distribution Centre. A new centre was opened in Swindon in 2007 and in Mar 2008, they announced that they were building an advanced centre in Sittingbourne, Kent. They have confirmed that they are looking at two further sites in the West Country to provide an additional centre. It has been reported that they are looking to replace Bellshill with a new centre in Scotland.

Through Wm Morrison Produce Ltd fresh produce, plants and flowers are delivered into temperature controlled warehouses and packing plants in Cheshire, Northampton, Lanarkshire and Yorkshire as well as in Holland, for prompt onward delivery to stores. Fruit and veg is mainly supplied by Bos Brothers Fruit and Vegetables BV (owned by Morrisons) located in the Netherlands. They have purchased the former Gerber Foods site in Bridgewater, Somerset which will provide similar facilies to service stores in the South and West.

Morrisons owns Farmer's Boy food factory (in Bradford), producing pizzas, pies, cooked meats and sausages, as well as packing cheese and bacon for sales in stores, as well as operating two meat processing facilities (Lancashire,(Neerock Limited) and Aberdeen) where beef, pork and lamb are prepared and supplied direct to stores.

Woodhouse Bros is owned by Morrisons with the Company operating abattoirs in Lancashire, Aberdeenshire and Lincolnshire. Because of the vertical integration of its fresh meat operations, Morrisons has been able to confirm in February 2008, that all its future fresh pork, lamb, beef and poultry will be 100% sourced from British farms.

Morrisons also used Holsa Limited to provide some of the companies packaging (company owned).

In 2005 Morrisons purchased part of the collapsed Rathbones Bakeries operation for £15.5m which make Rathbones and Morrisons bread. Rathbone Kear was initially a joint venture with the former MD of Rathbone's (who held a 20% stake). In March 2008 Morrison announced it had bought out Mr Kear's interests.

The result of all this is a highly vertically integrated company structure - unique amongst the "big four" supermarket chains in the UK.

Retirement of Sir Ken Morrison

The Board of Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC announces that effective from 13th March 2008, Sir Ken Morrison will retire as Chairman and Director of the company. Sir Ian Gibson, currently Deputy Chairman, will succeed him, as non-executive Chairman.

Sir Ian said: “Sir Ken is the outstanding example of a truly great retailer. His achievements in scale and length of service are remarkable. It is a privilege to take the role of Chairman.”

Sir Ken has accepted the position of Honorary President. In this ambassadorial role, he will continue the strong relationship with employees, communities and shoppers which has characterised his long and distinguished career. [32]

Financial performance

52/3 weeks to	Turnover (£'m)	Profit/(loss) before tax (£'m)	Profit/(loss) after tax (£'m)	Annual Report
4 February 2007	12,462	369.0	247.6	[33]
29 January 2006	12,115	(312.9)	(250.3)	[34]
30 January 2005	12,116	193.0	105.0	[35]
1 February 2004	4,944	319.9	197.6	[36]
2 February 2003	4,290	282.5	186.3	[37]
3 February 2002	3,915	243.0	143.7
4 February 2001	3,496	219.1	120.0
29 January 2000	2,969	189.2	103.1

See also

• Supermarkets in the United Kingdom

External links

• Company website
• Morrison's problems Daily Telegraph, June 2005
• Morrisons plunges deep into red BBC, 20 October 2005.
• Sir Ken has grocer back on track The Guardian, 23 February 2006
• Green leaves Safeway door open; Guardian Unlimited; 31 October 2003
• Morrisons in £3bn bid for Safeway; BBC; 15 December 2003.
• John Lewis buys stores from grocer Morrison; Reuters, 25 March 2004
• Morrisons turns off Safeway supply chain systems; Computing, 29 June 2005
• Off-the-shelf systems stack up at Morrisons; Computer Weekly, 20 March 2007
• Safeway disappears after 43 years BBC News, 23 November 2005
• Morrisons buys Rathbones Bakeries Guardian Unlimited 3 May 2005
• Morrisons faces strike action on supply chain IT; Computing, 17 August 2005