Morrisons' turnaround strategy seems to be yielding results as the UK's fifth-largest grocer reported its strongest quarterly sales growth since the £7 billion takeover in 2021. Under the leadership of Rami Baitiéh, who assumed the role of chief executive in November, the supermarket chain is undergoing a transformation. Baitiéh has initiated innovative measures such as inviting shoppers to board meetings and conducting customer "round tables" in stores to revitalise and reshape the company.
Acknowledging that Morrisons had not performed optimally since the pandemic, Baitiéh, a former CEO of Carrefour France, is actively engaging with top employees through daily online meetings to address customer feedback and concerns.
Baitiéh affirmed that the implemented plan is well underway and showing promising results. In the three months leading to January 28, like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, surged by 4.6 percent, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of such improvement and the strongest growth in three years.
Total sales, excluding fuel, climbed by 3.9 percent to £3.9 billion. Baitiéh noted positive shifts in key customer metrics and highlighted a nearly 60 percent decrease in customer complaints over the past 20 weeks, referring to them as the "canaries in the retail coalmine." He emphasised the company's commitment to further enhancing various aspects including product availability, newness, innovation, speed, and accuracy. Despite challenges following its acquisition by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, the American private equity group, Morrisons is striving to overcome hurdles, despite adding £6.6 billion of debt to its balance sheet through the deal.
