Morrisons profits rose in its last financial year as it notched up six consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth.
Full year EBITDA for the supermarket chain jumped 6.5% for the year ended 29 October, rising to 8.5% during the fourth quarter.
The supermarket’s annual sales, excluding fuel, nudged up 2.7% – or 1.8% on a like-for-like basis – to almost £14.9bn.
Meanwhile, fourth quarter sales, excluding fuel, accelerated to 3.3%, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales improvement.
Although Morrisons CEO Rami Baitiéh, who joined the supermarket in November, termed the sales trend “very positive”, he acknowledged there was “so much more we can do”.
The new boss vowed to improve customer satisfaction at the supermarket as he looked to “reinvigorate, refresh and strengthen Morrisons and to start a new chapter – which begins with our customers”.
“Across the business we are listening hard to what our customers are telling us and taking action, and we are just beginning to see our customer satisfaction scores improve. This will be the bedrock of our next chapter,” he said.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Morrisons CFO Jo Goff added: “This has been a year of steady progress as we continued to invest in price, customer service, loyalty and made further improvements in our own brand range and in quality.”
She also pointed out that the retailer had made “good progress” on its working capital improvement.
It completed £450m of sale and leaseback deals over the year, and yesterday revealed it had sold 337 of its petrol forecourts to MFG for £2.5bn, as it took a minority stake in the petrol station giant.
The deal forms “a new strategic partnership” between the two companies, which are both owned by private equity firm CD&R, and will see the grocer take around a 20% stake in MFG and enter into commercial and supply agreements with the business.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
