Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc (MRW.L) reported Monday a decline in sales and like-for-like sales for the 6-week period ended December 30, amid a difficult and challenging market environment. The board believes that the company's full-year performance would be broadly in line with its expectations.
Looking ahead, Wm Morrison expects the difficult market conditions to continue through 2013. The UK-based retailer sells food and grocery products.
In its Christmas trading update, the company said its total sales, excluding VAT and fuel, declined 0.9 percent and sales were down 0.5 percent, including fuel.
On a like-for-like basis, sales dropped 2.5 percent from last year. Including fuel, the decrease in like-for-like sales was 2.2 percent.
Dalton Philips, chief executive officer stated, "In a difficult market our sales performance was lower than anticipated, but we have a strong business and significant opportunities to advance our strategy, as we accelerate our multi-channel offer."
During the Christmas period, business environment continued to be challenging, with consumers increasingly shopping to a budget, the company noted.
However, Wm Morrison said its financial position remains strong and that it expects full-year net debt to be in the range of 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion pounds.
Further, the company said, to date, it has acquired 329 million shares at a total investment of 931 million pounds. This is related to its two-year programme to retire 1 billion pounds of equity, originally announced in March 2011.
The company, founded in 1899, operates about 475 stores in Britain. In early November, it had reported a 0.4 percent decline in total sales excluding fuel for the third quarter ended October 28, 2012. Like-for-like sales were down 2.1 percent. In London, Wm Morrison shares are currently trading at 257.04 pence, up 0.14 pence or 0.06 percent, on a volume of 3.22 million shares.
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