Not the most exciting share, but with safeway conversion now complete (and how much better the old safeway stores are now) the shares should start to come back. Already started a nice rise from a recent low. Costs for conversions will still hold the price back but when that is out of the way, should be be nice. 190p

Sharecast -



Tesco and Morrisons lose market share to discounters

Fri, 01 August 2014




Tesco and Morrisons continue to bleed market share to competitors, such as discounters Aldi and Lidl or upscale chain Waitrose.

Thus, Tesco's market share decreased to 28.3% over the last 12 weeks from 29.7% and Morrisons fell to 10.9% from 11.4%, according to the latest data from Nielsen.

On this occasion, however, Sainsbury's managed to retain its 16.4% of the market.

ASDA, which is owned by US outfit WalMart, increased its share to 16.3% from 16.2% the month before.

The above follows figures out on Tuesday from Kantar Worldpanel which showed that Tesco's sales dropped by 3.8% over 12 weeks ending on 20 July, sending its market share lower by 1.4 percentage points to 28.9%.

The difficulty in turning around the company's deteriorating competitive situation led to the ouster of its chief executive, Philip Clarke.

He was replaced by Unilever's Dave Lewis, who as Brewin Dolphin analyst Nicla di Palma said, has ample knowledge of strategy in the 'fast moving consumer goods' space but none in direct retail.

Di Palma believes Tesco will most likely respond with further significant price cuts in order to close the gap with Asda, together with heightened investment in personnel costs.

That bodes poorly for operating margins, which may drop by 150 basis points. More significant changes cannot be ruled out.

The probability of a cut to Tesco's dividend has also risen notoriously. Nonetheless, a 'fresh' perspective may be just what the retailer needs, but there will be short term pain, di Palma concludes.

As of 13:03 shares of Tesco were 1.94% lower at 253p, although Morrisons stock was edging higher by 0.3% to 169.1p.

Now Morrisons is under pressure with profits set to plunge by HALF: After scathing attack by its founder, supermarket is hit by online U-turn

By Alex Hawkes, Financial Mail on Sunday

Published: 22:02, 6 September 2014 | Updated: 22:02, 6 September 2014


On a prayer: Chief executive Dalton Philips

Profits are set to have halved amid plunging sales when troubled supermarket chain Morrisons unveils half-year results this week, piling further pressure on embattled chief executive Dalton Philips.


Investors fear the company’s dividend plans will be slashed – even if the company honours a commitment to raise the payout by 5 per cent in the short term.


Philips was subjected to a humiliating dressing-down from the firm’s founder in June when Sir Ken Morrison compared his strategy to the ‘bulls**t’ produced by his herd of cattle. There are suggestions a replacement for Philips has been lined up, though it is chairman Sir Ian Gibson who will definitely be stepping down next year when he retires to be replaced by former Tesco finance boss Andrew Higginson.


But Philips will point to signs that the grocer’s loss of market share is bottoming out. His strategy to lead the fightback against the discounters, led by German firms Aldi and Lidl, has been shaped not so much by beating them as by joining them.


Analysts at Barclays’ investment bank say Morrisons will reveal first-half profits of £165 million, down from £344 million in the same period last year. Same-store sales could be down by almost 7 per cent, according to a consensus of City analysts.


But it would be a dividend climbdown that would really hurt Philips. Earlier this year Morrisons, based in Bradford, said it would raise its dividend for the year by 5 per cent. Last year the grocer paid £270 million in dividends, easily covered by its £879 million profit.


Even if the supermarket does not climb down on the 5 per cent rise, the City expects no future commitments to raising the payouts.


‘We would be surprised if the company does not reiterate its commitment to a 5 per cent rise. But we would not be surprised if Morrisons refuses to be drawn on dividend policy,’ analysts at Barclays said.


Philips will be hoping he has plenty of green shoots to distract investors from his dividend dilemma.


Retail analyst Kantar Worldpanel revealed that sales in late July and early August had risen for the first time in more than nine months. And Philips announced a price-cutting strategy in March to take on the discounters at their own game – slashing prices on 1,200 items. Barclays expects Philips to present some encouraging data on this.


‘The main task of management is to break down sales figures and present encouraging trends. This may be achievable if Morrisons provides data on basket size, the number of items bought or customer traffic,’ said Barclays’ analysts. Customer traffic and the number of items bought may be particularly revealing, the investment bank says, because they are less affected by price cuts in understanding how customers are deciding to shop.


Analysts at Santander believe there will be few signs of price cuts yielding fruit yet, adding: ‘Kantar data shows signs of a slowing of the sales decline, but in our opinion it is too early to translate this into profits given market conditions.’


One gloomy figure concerns Morrisons’ online forays. The grocery chain will take a hit from its involvement with Kiddicare, the online nursery goods store it bought for £70 million in 2011 to help its push into selling groceries online.



Kiddicare



But Morrisons instead signed a deal with Ocado last year to develop its online grocery sales, and sold Kiddicare to turnaround group Endless for just £2 million in July.


Figures just filed at Companies House show that Kiddicare, which now also has 11 bricks-and-mortar stores, made a loss of £125 million in the year to the start of February, including a £106 million writedown.


Perhaps the biggest question for Morrisons may be out of its hands – what Tesco will do under new boss Dave Lewis. Lewis, who started last week, is expected to pile on pricing pressure at the UK’s largest grocer.


‘A resurgent Tesco under its new chief executive is likely to see a step-up in pricing activity,’ said Santander’s analysts.


All the big grocers have been under pressure to emulate Lidl and Aldi, where sales have been growing by double digit percentages.


Morrisons can fund price-cutting by selling part of its vast property portfolio, worth £9 billion according to Santander’s analysts.


When Morrisons last announced its annual results it said it would sell £1 billion of property over the next three years – £500 million this year. The grocer has made noises about moving into convenience retailing and developing online sales – both fast growing areas for the grocers.


The question for Philips will be if the chain has done enough in those areas to merit optimism when the grocer’s shares are down almost 40 per cent in a year. Shareholders will want to know if things must get worse before they get better.

Unloved Morrisons wins over Citi

Interim Results


Financial summary

· Total turnover down 4.9% to £8.5bn (2013/14: £8.9bn)

· Like-for-like sales (ex-fuel/ex-VAT) down 7.4% (2013/14: down 1.6%)

· Underlying profit before tax(1) down 51% to £181m (2013/14: £371m(2))

· Underlying earnings per share(1) down 52% to 5.74p (2013/14: 11.92p(2))

· Profit before tax £239m (2013/14: £344m)

· Interim dividend up 5.0% to 4.03p (2013/14: 3.84p)

· Net debt reduced by £209m to £2,608m (FY 2013/14: £2,817m)

· 2014/15 underlying profit before tax(1) guidance confirmed at £325-£375m



Financial highlights

· Strong cash flow progress - £531m better year-on-year

· Operating working capital improvement of £145m in the first half

· Property disposals of £280m recognised, profits of £54m achieved

· New £300m bond and £1.35bn revolving credit facility further strengthen funding profile

· Triennial pension review completed - schemes remain well funded



Strategic and operating highlights

· Action across the business to implement new three-year plan

· All components of the £1bn self-help programme on track:

o £105m achieved in the first half

o simplified in-store management structure being introduced

o range reduction - over 2,000 SKUs removed

· Investments to improve and modernise the business progressing well:

o lower prices driving volume recovery - Q2 Items per Basket 480bps better than Q2 LFL; Produce items 760bps better than Q2 LFL

o Items on Promotion down 13% year-on-year in Q2

o promotional participation now falling year-on-year

o launching our Morrisons card soon, after successful trials

· Online and M local roll-outs progressing well




http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4883614

'Match & More card'.

Broken up above the cloud... hhmmm

What Lidl have to say about Morrison's latest Loyalty Card Deal:

Sharecast - Morrisons is increasing prices on some of its "I'm cheaper" lines less than six months after vowing to cut prices permanently on more than 1,000 staples, the Sunday Times said. The paper said it had seen analysis showing that Morrisons had quietly raised the prices of battered cod and golden delicious apples. The supermarket group told the paper prices were still lower than before it launched its price-cut promotion. Chief Executive Dalton Philips said in May that prices would fall "not just for the next week or the next month".

Sharecast -Current trading conditions at Wm Morrison are a "worry to our minds", according to analysts at Shore Capital who repeated their 'hold' rating on the stock ahead of the supermarket chain's third-quarter update this week.

"We expect Morrison's to continue to report trading that is a little short of grim," said analysts Clive Black and Darren Shirley, adding that the firm is now entering a "critical quarter".

Interim Management Statement

I visited a Morrison's store yesterday, spending about £60 or so.

I chatted with about four of the staff and they do seem re-energised. Blatantly management are 'doing things for the good of the business'. Indeed, I saw one senior manager actually seen taking an interest and issuing instructions to at least three staff and he was also showing a presence around the tills for some time too, thereby making himself available to be spoken with.

The toilets have had an upgrade and were 'sparkling clean' - this was badly needed in this store. I noticed the brand new mixer taps and new jetter hand dryers. New laminated easy-clean walls. The whole supermarket had new brighter lighting.

I noticed a great improvement to the displays of fish on the fish counter.

The check out lady 'was quite happy' to be processing the new price match loyalty cards and coupons. Six visits, spending £40 each time gets me a £25 voucher at Christmas.

Why do I actually bother to shop here? Well, we walk the dog at a different place each day. This is handy once each week for one such of those days, just as we are running out of, say bread or milk or the bananas we have with our daily porridge.

Hmmm?

Anyhow, it is more pleasurable to shop here now thanit ever was and I thoroughly got the message they are trying harder to please their customers and are now definitely extremely competitively priced. I did detect, that the lower prices have dropped the quality a little bit with the fresh vegetables and fruit - or is it just the time of year or was it merely the day of the week we shopped?

I like to look, touch and feel and am not yet into online shopping for our fruit and vegetables, which are a major part of our shopping bag.

Hmmm?

I've noticed similar things in my local Morrison - the fish offers have certainly improved, as have the mix and match on packaged veg - baby sweet corn, mange tout etc.

Also the 'management' have been much more in evidence.

Morrisons sales tumble even further than expected

By Ian Lyall

November 06 2014, 7:58am
It may take a while for the CEO's initiatives to boost the sales line.
It may take a while for the CEO's initiatives to boost the sales line.


The performance of Bradford-based grocer Morrions (LONB:MRW) was every bit as bad as expected – possibly worse.

Squeezed by the discounters Aldi and Lidl, as well as its usual adversaries, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury, the group posted a 6.3% decline in underlying sales for the quarter to November 2.

This was slightly worse than the 5.9% predicted by City analysts, who will have trouble picking the positives from this morning’s statement.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said one of its key indicators – items per basket – had improved. However Morrisons still reported a 2.4% year on year decline.

The supermarkets boss admitted it may take some time for the initiatives such as its trumpeted £1bn of price cuts to fully benefit its sales performance.

After March’s catastrophic profit warning, the market is bracing itself for radically lower profits.

Today Morrisons narrowed the range of what to expect as it said underlying pre-tax profits would be £335-£365mln from previous guidance of £325-£375mln. That’s less than half the £785mln it made last financial year.

Philips told investors: "Morrisons is meeting the challenges created by a period of intense industry competition and structural change with quick and decisive action.

“I am encouraged by the further progress we have made, especially on a number of key operational measures, cash flow and costs.”

Thinking this is a good recovery stock. Home Delivery getting bigger and bigger.

Schroders > 5%

Morrisons pilots its first standalone halal meat counter

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/fresh/morrisons-pilots-its-first-standalone-halal-meat-counter/373980.article?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=rss

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wont be shopping at Morrisons anymore.

It's a corker eh gf?

Have you two got access to the Grocer?