Richard Lim, of research consultants Retail Economics, said the deal "signals the biggest shakeup in the UK grocery sector for over a decade" as the industry grapples with changes brought by the pandemic and post-Brexit supply chains. He said the nature of the way a purchase was made was important and said the Morrisons deal, in which he said the consortium planned to "back the business", was in contrast to the Issa Brothers buyout of Asda.
Morrisons started life as a market stall in Bradford in but it was not until that the first supermarket store opened under the name. Asda takeover 'could lead to higher petrol prices'. Billionaire brothers' Asda takeover deal probed. Image source, PA Media. Fortress pre-empts concerns. Related Topics. Published 21 June. Published 20 April. UK companies 'perform better' with overseas owners.
Image source, Getty Images. Morrisons backs US firm's improved takeover offer Morrisons warns driver shortage will raise prices Bidding war looms for Morrisons as rivals circle Morrisons to give workers Boxing Day off.
Related Topics. Companies Morrisons Retailing Supermarkets. Published 16 August. In , he bought an abandoned theater in Bradford and converted it into a supermarket.
Once transformed, the theater offered some 5, square feet of retail space and a parking lot for the company's increasingly mobile customers. The success of that store encouraged Morrison to begin opening new stores. In , the company backed its expansion with a public offering on the London Stock Exchange. Morrison's focus remained on its northern England region, and by the late s, the company had succeeded in establishing itself as the region's top supermarket and one of the top chains in the country.
At the end of the s, Morrisons, while continuing to open new stores, began to make acquisitions of other stores. In , the company made a new expansion with the acquisition of the Mainstop grocery store group. The company's roots in wholesale selling proved central to generating profits while maintaining low prices, as Morrison operated its own subsidiaries to provide products, packaging, and distribution to its stores.
The company's growth during the s brought it to more than 50 stores by the beginning of the s. Meanwhile, the failing British economy of the late s and early s was bringing pressure on the company. Its competitors were leading a consolidation of the industry, through a wave of takeovers and acquisitions that created four giant supermarket chains--Asda, Safeway, Tesco, and Sainsbury. Morrison's competitors also began wooing customers with a series of promotions, loyalty cards, and other services, such as extended store hours, as well as launching aggressive ad campaigns.
Morrison resisted temptation to join its rivals in this expensive competition. Instead, the company clung to its discount formula and its insistence that all of its stores exhibit the same prices. Where its competitors' prices varied from store to store depending on their locations, Morrison's single-price formula contributed in winning customer loyalty.
Nonetheless, Morrison bowed to some of its competitors' pressure when in it agreed to extend its store opening hours to include Sundays. The result of this move, however, was an increase in annual sales and profits. Despite these moves, the company still faced a withering competitive climate and a continued economic crisis.
By , for the first time in 20 years, the company posted no new-store openings. Yet Morrison did not rest for long. With 81 stores by mid-decade, Morrison needed to continue building scale in order to compete with its giant competitors. The company returned to new store openings, including a growing number of superstores, modeled after the French hypermarket concept that extended traditional grocery lines into a wide variety of consumer goods. The company's expansion also took it into new territory--for the first time, the company began opening stores outside of its traditional northern stronghold, moving into the highly competitive southern regions of England.
While these moves raised eyebrows, the company's new stores--which shared Morrison's commitment to its single-price policy--quickly proved to be among the company's top revenue generators. In , Morrison reached an agreement with Midland Bank to bring banking into its supermarkets, matching its competitors.
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