Supermarket giant Morrisons sales jump as grocer ramps up cost-cutting targets

For the 13 weeks to January 26, 2025, Morrisons reported a 2.1% increase in group like-for-like sales, and a 2.4% jump in total sales to £4bn.

The supermarket said that More Card-linked sales reached an “all time high” at 78%, and it strengthened the senior management team during the period with the appointments of Andrew Staniland as group trading director, food; Matt Heslop as director of convenience and wholesale, and Matt McLellan as group data and media director.

While sales improved, the retailer also said that it had ramped up its cost saving goals in the medium term—up from £700m to £1bn.

Earlier this week, Morrisons announced that it was putting 365 jobs at risk across its business as it proposed closing 52 in-store cafes, all 18 of its Market Kitchens, 17 convenience stores, 13 florists, 35 of its meat and fish counters and four of its in-store pharmacies across the UK. 

Chief executive Rami Baitiéh said: “Despite a challenging environment, Morrisons has made exceptional progress in a very short time and that is entirely down to the hard work, positivity, talent and customer focus of the colleagues in our stores, in our food making sites and in our operations across the country.

“As I outlined in January, the cyber-attack on Blue Yonder caused a far-reaching period of disruption across the businesses, affecting our stock accuracy, availability, waste and forecasting. Despite this, I am very pleased that we are reporting an increase in like-for-like sales in the quarter of +2.1%.

“In the quarter, we delivered a further £56m of cost savings and we expect to deliver the remainder of our £700m target ahead of schedule in the second quarter. Today, we are increasing our target to £1bn which will help us offset cost headwinds, invest for customers and remain competitive in a fast-changing market.”