Morrison (wm) Supermarkets Share Discussion Threads

[gbh2] 22/1/2020 10:41

"They will soon have no one to put goods on the shelves"

They've been reducing lines for the last year or so, so there's less goods to put on shelves, main job at our store is spreading the Home Brand items out to fill the empty spaces!

[cheshire man] 22/1/2020 07:10

Telegraph's Questor

Update: Morrisons

Hold

[albert3591] 21/1/2020 16:02

No doubt they will cut more jobs soon,1.7% down.They will soon have no one to put goods on the shelves,you can’t sell it in the warehouse.

[albert3591] 16/1/2020 11:40

Got to face facts

[albert3591] 16/1/2020 11:05

Morrison’s just get some staff in your shops

[gswredland] 10/1/2020 17:39

Looks like it is heading for 180

[albert3591] 10/1/2020 16:57

Getitdown for Amazon

[essentialinvestor] 10/1/2020 13:32

They look the sector laggard atm on trading, I'm not sure why tbh.

[essentialinvestor] 10/1/2020 13:31

I don't see how NAV is supportive for the SP, it's primarily a food retailer.
Yes owning freeholds is helpful, but unless they literally shut up shop and
sold the shops, it's pretty meaingless to valuation.

[scotches] 09/1/2020 12:12

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Here's how leading retail analysts viewed the retailer's performance:

Nigel Frith, www.asktraders.com
"Investors hoping for a Christmas bounce for Morrisons over the Christmas period will be disappointed. Group sales at WM Morrisons were down 1.7% in 22 weeks to 5 January. After Aldi reported weaker growth than usual over the Christmas period on Monday, hopes were running pretty low for Morrisons, the first of the Big Four supermarkets to report on the crucial Christmas period.

"This December was always going to be a more challenging time given the politically uncertain landscape running up to the elections on 12th December. However, hopes that customers would flock to the store after a decisive win from the Conservatives didn’t materialise.

"Despite items in Morrisons own Christmas Basket being cheaper than last year, any sense of improved optimism following the clearer political picture has failed to show itself in the numbers yet. The bottom line is consumer confidence is still low; until there is a complete resolution to Brexit consumers will keep spending cautiously."

Thomas Brereton, GlobalData
"Morrisons will find some solace in the fact it was facing a laudable comparative period after a strong performance last year, a grocery market with near-zero inflation, and facing the same politically-related adversity faced by all retailers at the end of 2019. However, retail l-f-l sales fell worryingly far over the 22-week period, and with a Q3 fall of -1.1%, suggests an unsettling fall of c-2.6% over the core 9-week Christmas period.

"Thus, even with the aforementioned explanations for a trying trading period, Morrisons may be left scratching its head as to why it now appears a grocery laggard after spending much of 2018 and the first half of 2019 as a leader.

"But in conclusion, Morrisons does not need to overhaul its strategy, management or product ranges. Its focus on expanding its online presence (through Amazon as well as in-house operations) remains the correct strategy, and – coupled with growing wholesale partnerships and savvy store estate management – stands Morrisons is good stead for 2020. Instead, as rightfully stated by CEO Dave Potts, Morrisons should see this disheartening period as an opportunity to 'take some learnings into the New Year' and move with momentum into 2020.''

Russ Mould, AJ Bell
“The slogan might need to be updated from ‘Morrisons makes it’ to ‘Morrisons makes it by the skin of its teeth’ after today’s trading missive from the supermarket and wholesale food group.

“Despite falling festive sales the company is spared a negative market reaction as worse was pencilled in. The shares had already fallen as investors became nervous ahead of the announcement. Chief executive David Potts promises a ‘strong plan’ for the coming financial year.

“Drawing like-for-like comparison with last year’s showing is made more difficult as this update covers a 22-week period and its counterpart 12 months ago covered just five weeks, which seems an unnecessary complication.

“It does not seem too cynical to assume it is designed to draw a veil over deterioration in trading conditions in recent weeks. Tight control of costs at least means profit expectations for the full year are unchanged.

“The release is a reminder of pressures on the groceries sector which faces a combination of cut throat competition, a challenging consumer backdrop and the increasing shift to ordering the weekly shop online."

Clive Black, Shore Capital
"Morrison records ‘challenging trading conditions and continued uncertainty amongst consumers’ in its statement to the market. In this respect, we repeat our observation of a UK grocery market that ran 1-2% below our expectations of the summer and one that became much more promotional embracing extensive discount events, wine and fuel vouchers.

"Morrison, in this respect, was quite cautious and we expect trading tactics to form part of the learnings management is currently reflecting upon.

"Additionally, and perhaps more optimistically, we shall keep an eye on forthcoming UK Government policy formation around household incomes and whether or not consumer confidence improves as a potential source of rising industry activity at a tidal level in CY2020."

Richard Lim, Retail Economics
“Festive cheer was not shared with the retailer as shrinking sales demonstrate the fiercely competitive food sector.

“These figures suggest Morrisons was outmanoeuvred by its competitors. Shoppers remained fixated on searching for the best value and highly price-sensitive against the backdrop of ongoing uncertainty.

“Despite the pressure on margins, the industry remained stuck in a spiral of continual discounting with the depth and breadth of promotions snowballing in the run-up to Christmas. Nevertheless, a firm grip on costs offset some of the decline in sales to deliver profitability in line with previous expectations.”

Bruno Monteyne, Bernstein
"Morrisons' -1.1% in Q3 and -1.7% in H2 to date was a +50bps and +30bps beat to consensus respectively. The positive message from this would be that Kantar underreported Morrisons growth by about 50 bps; if that is reflected across the other retailers, that should be positive news for the UK food retailers and suggests more beats may be under way (SBRY on Wednesday, TSCO on Thursday). Management called out the tough trading conditions and continued consumer uncertainty."

[essentialinvestor] 08/1/2020 19:43

Problem is the market keeps getting tougher.
Might be worth a look around 1.80?.

[justiceforthemany] 08/1/2020 19:42

Now trading below book price/NAV

[loganair] 07/1/2020 13:16

Morrisons is to trial its Morrisons Daily fascia at a further 20 McColl’s convenience stores over January and February. The move comes after it began a trial in February last year at 10 McColl’s stores in the North West, which also saw the stores sell Morrisons' own-label products.

[essentialinvestor] 07/1/2020 11:34

Well to be fair the update paints a picture of brutally tough trading conditions.

Unless there's a bid, difficult to be that optimistic.

[muffinhead] 07/1/2020 08:12

lol yesterday market didn't like weekend scribblers and today when company confirms says "whatever"

[loganair] 06/1/2020 15:14

The last Kantar update in early December gave Aldi/Lidl a combined market share of 14.1% which was up from 12.7% a year earlier.

This means during 2019 Aldi/Lidl increased their market share by 1.4%.

[linton5] 06/1/2020 13:37

Results tmmw I see interesting reaction today

[muffinhead] 06/1/2020 11:49

Grocery pageant week

[cheshire man] 06/1/2020 11:47

Proactive

@proactive_UK
·
49m

Morrison's on the back foot ahead of Christmas trading update as Bank of America downgrades to ‘underperform’
The FTSE 100 grocer is expected by some analysts to see the biggest decline in Christmas sales among the 'big four' when it updates the market on Tuesday




‘Big four’ grocer WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) is on the back foot ahead of its festive trading update on Tuesday after Bank of America (BoA) Merrill Lynch on Monday downgraded the company to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’; and cut its price target to 185p from 195p.
The move quickly sent shares in the FTSE 100 supermarket down 3.4% to 192.3p in mid-morning trading, continuing the firm’s overall share price decline across 2019.

[muffinhead] 06/1/2020 11:40

Like for Like experts adopting brace position for tomorrows trading update




Morrisons is expected to be the biggest loser, with analysts at Barclays forecasting that, excluding its wholesale business, like-for-like sales will have fallen by 2.5% over the festive period. The City also expects Tesco and Sainsbury’s to report declines in sales, albeit more modest.

“I don’t think there will be any great disasters, but people won’t exactly be popping champagne corks,” one senior supermarket source said. “The volume of sales has been buoyant but that hasn’t translated into value because the price competition has been so intense.”

Aldi and Lidl reduced prices on bags of festive vegetables to just 15p to lure shoppers through their doors in the run-up to Christmas. Over the past decade, the expansion of the discounters squeezed the big four supermarkets’ profitability by about 40%. Aldi and Lidl are still opening about 100 stores a year between them.

Under chief executive David Potts, Morrisons grew like-for-like sales for three consecutive years by cutting prices, renovating stores and investing more in to its own-brand groceries, but that steady recovery ran out of steam last year in the
face of intensifying competition.

[astorcourt] 03/1/2020 09:43

what is the toonarmy doing at morrisons