Morrisons has become the first UK supermarket to launch its own line of carbon neutral eggs as part of its target to be directly supplied by ‘zero emission’ British farms by 2030.
The supermarklet has come under fire from investors who argue the company needs to increase the proportion of healthy food in its sales mix. But the UK supermarket group hit back, highlighting its work to reformulate vertically integrated own label lines.
Where are the opportunities for new suppliers in retail? Category buyers at three of the UK’s biggest supermarkets talk ‘eye-catching’ innovation, burgeoning trends, and whether having an already established following matters.
Morrisons’ role as a food manufacturer – supported by its vertically integrated supply chain – is a unique sales point, which should be communicated more effectively, according to analysts, after the retailer reported its second quarter of rising sales.
UK supermarkets are using too much plastic packaging for food products and both retailers and packing manufacturers could do more, a new survey has concluded.
Asda is calling on all food retailers to follow its lead after
launching a campaign to back British free range egg producers
against foreign competition.
Troubled UK supermarket group Wm Morrison's could become the latest
acquisition target for a private equity consortium, as the firm
struggles to overcome last year's problematic takeover of rival
grocer Safeway.
American-owned Asda has again held the number two spot in Britain's
top retailer chart by a whisker, but looks certain to pass the
mantle to Sainsbury's over the next quarter.
With Sainsburys muscling in on Asda's precarious number two spot -
and other competitors strengthening their positions - Britain's
food retail market is set for a cut-throat year.
Rhubarb, the favourite of granddads and school dinners across the
country, has seen sales more than double after recent endorsements
from celebrity chefs in the UK.
Morrisons, Britain's fourth largest retailer, today posted a £73.7
million pre-tax loss for the first half of the year after failing
to take control of its massive Safeway acquisition.
It looks likely that Somerfield might be forced by the UK's
competition regulator to sell 14 of the 100 former Safeway stores
it purchased from Wm Morrison, a move that might provide a modicum
of relief to food processors under...
While William Morrison Supermarkets is reportedly on the hunt for a
new chief executive, it has issued another warning that it is
having a hard time digesting its £3.35bn (€5bn) acquisition of
Safeway last year, reports Ahmed ElAmin.
British high street retailer Somerfield has rejected the initial
advances of Icelandic group Baugur, but the possibility of a formal
offer - and an eventual link up with the Iceland chain - remains on
the cards, provided Baugur comes...
Somerfield, the British retail group, continues to struggle with
its Kwik Save unit, acquired in 1998. The company has taken a long
time to find the right trading format for the discounter and
recently took the decision to close or...
Britain's top food retailer Tesco has posted third quarter results
which surpassed even the most optimistic analysts' forecasts,
underlining its ongoing dominance of the UK market.
UK supermarket chain Morrisons is set to sell five of its stores to
rival Asda for £40 million, but is reported to be looking into
closing down other stores that it acquired as a result of its
takeover of larger rival Safeway earlier...
Tesco strengthened its position as the leading grocer in the UK in
the last quarter, with sales growth more than twice that of its
nearest rival Asda. Upmarket retailer Waitrose also showed
excellent growth, while Morrisons continued...
Price cutting by the major UK retail chains has taken its toll on
Iceland's burgeoning recovery in the first quarter - and changes at
Safeway and J Sainsbury are likely to keep the pressure on prices
well into the second half.
Already obliged to sell off 52 stores as part of its acquisition of
the Safeway chain earlier this year, British retail group Morrisons
is now considering seeking a buyer for a further 120 stores,
effectively shelving its initial...
Britain's third largest supermarket group Sainsbury today confirmed
that it had slipped into the red in 2003 as it continued to feel
the impact of its three-year structural overhaul. The company had
already warned that margin...
Britain's Co-op group has laid down a challenge to larger rivals
Tesco and Sainsbury, highlighting its "determination to
grow" in the convenience store sector after the successful
integration of two recent acquisitions,...
Quarterly figures from both Marks & Spencer and Iceland
released this week show that high street retailers are coming under
increasing pressure from the leading players, not only because of
the latter's relentless move into...
UK supermarket giant Waitrose has emerged as the favourite to pick
up the biggest package of Safeway stores from WM Morrison. It is
expected to buy up to 25 supermarkets for between £250 million
(€374m) and £300 million.
Wm Morrison plans to reduce prices on a further 2,000 Safeway
products over the next month as part of its move to slash prices
throughout the stores it acquired earlier this month.
Somerfield, itself a takeover target last year, is the latest UK
supermarket retailer to move into the convenience store sector, a
movement led by larger rivals Tesco and Sainsbury. Evidence that
the UK's biggest High Street...
With the takeover of Safeway finally completed this month, UK
supermarket group Morrisons is preparing for a busy 2004 of store
refits, closures and disposals. But at least it starts the new
financial year in good shape, with double...
With its takeover of Safeway finally completed, Morrisons now faces
the difficult task of integrating the two businesses and bringing
the profitability of Safeway's somewhat downmarket stores up to its
own high level.
Morrisons' takeover of Safeway came a step nearer to completion
yesterday with the announcement that the High Court in London had
rubber stamped the scheme of arrangement between the two companies.
Retailers' distribution costs in the UK have risen slightly over
the last year, but stock levels have been reduced and supply chains
are becoming more efficient, according to the latest survey of
retail logistics published by...
It was in January 2003 that Yorkshire-based food retailer Wm
Morrison surprised the British supermarket sector with the
announcement of a £2.9 billion takeover bid for larger rival
Safeway. Now, more than a year later, the finishing...
Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket group, has decided how to spend
the first £53.7 million of the £810 million cash pile it unveiled
earlier this month. While the group has made clear its intentions
to grow its international...
If 2003 was all about Safeway, and in the end Morrison's, in 2004
the UK grocery market agenda will be dominated by price. That is
the key finding of a new report from retail market analysts
Verdict published this week.
2003 was a year of frustrations for UK supermarket group Wm Morrison. Its
bid for larger rival Safeway made last January was not finally
approved until December, an 11 month period in which Morrisons'
continued improvement was...
Morrisons, the Bradford-based supermarket group, must make a bid
for the Safeway chain within 21 days after the UK government
yesterday accepted definitive undertakings from rival chains not to
bid for the company.
Morrisons could make a new bid for the Safeway supermarket chain
before Christmas, beginning the final leg of a sale process which
has lasted nearly a year.
Sainsbury has appointed a former Marks & Spencer executive as
its new CEO, replacing Sir Peter Davis who will become chairman.
But Davis' ambitious attempt to pull the company out of the
doldrums continues to misfire, with...
Safeway, the UK food retail chain, has put 53 stores up for sale in
advance of the expected takeover of the chain by Wm Morrison. As
well as Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda, all of which lost out in their
bids to buy Safeway, offers have...
Sainsbury, the UK's number three food retailer, is falling further
behind rivals Tesco and Asda with a decline in like-for-like sales
during the second quarter of the year. The company also faces
increased competition from a...
Tesco is set to benefit as much from the Safeway takeover as
Morrisons, the company which is actually buying the chain, snapping
up a number of unwanted stores, according to analysts at Goldman
Sachs. But the likely price war caused...
As expected, Morrisons is the only retailer allowed to bid for the
Safeway chain, with rival offers from Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda all
blocked by the UK government. But Morrisons' bid is unlikely to be
as high as it was in January,...
Morrisons' business model would have a major beneficial effect on
sales and profits at Safeway if the Yorkshire-based chain emerges
as the eventual winner in the battle to acquire the troubled
company. Like-for-like sales growth...
Sainsbury has been dealt a double blow this week, with the news
that its hostile bid for 171 Somerfield stores is likely to come a
cropper at the hands of the regulators followed by the even more
devastating evidence that it has been...
After fighting off two hostile bids, including one which would have
seen 171 of its stores pass into the hands of rival Sainsbury, the
future of UK retailer Somerfield looks more stable. But the company
is likely to remain a takeover...
Speaking at his company's AGM yesterday, Sir Ken Morrison said he
had been 'surprised and disappointed' by the decision to refer
Morrison's bid for Safeway to the Competition Commission. But he
did not rule out...
