Morrison (wm) Supermarkets Share Discussion Threads

[chinese investor] 19/8/2020 09:54

Good to see 200p again !

[philanderer] 17/8/2020 09:47

Morrisons considers ditching all 'bags for life' for paper

[philanderer] 13/8/2020 11:46

And that's what I've done :-)

Luck to holders.

[ygor705] 12/8/2020 08:13

Good write-up for Morrison's by Tempus in The Times this morning. Rates them as a buy at this level.

[muffinhead] 03/8/2020 13:37

Surprised Morrisons cafe/restaurant not participating

"Eat out to help out"

[scotches] 01/8/2020 07:20

Interesting to note that the Third Point hedge fund has turned up again on the shorting register.



You only have to disclose if you are short by 0.5% of the company so it is not clear of the exact timing or at what prices the bet was made. (Each 1% is about 23m shares).

You may recall that Third Point had tried a down bet on MRW before. Between Nov 2015 and March 2016 they lost over 11.5m plus costs when the shares moved up from the 150 to 200p level.

See post 1245.

[muffinhead] 29/7/2020 02:02

DPD courier has been used to deliver Morrison food boxes for free during lockdown to satisfy orders


The Morrison's food box concept is a great innovation imo.. just change the box logo with the Amazon logo and hey presto, perfect standarized delivery package

Not a great stretch of the imagination that Morrisons who have been working with Amazon, can also now use Amazon logistics

In 2019, Amazon had 15 million prime members in the UK


Ben Marlow, Telegraph Business pages, thinks best outcome would be for Amazon to buy Morrisons


"Food delivery has doubled to more than 3m orders per week since the beginning of the pandemic. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons, which has a tie-up with Amazon, were able to double capacity quickly...........


If Bezos really wants to win the grocery wars, he will need to buy one of the major incumbents outright. Tesco and Sainsbury’s are out of bounds by virtue of size. Marks and Spencer (albeit M&S has a deal with Ocado) and Waitrose are possible targets, but Morrisons would be favourite because its stores fit the Amazon model and the pair have an existing partnership. Now that would be something to fear."

[johnwise] 28/7/2020 08:32

“millions of other” locations in the UK before the end of the year.


Amazon begins offering fast grocery deliveries free with Prime

Free deliveries through the Amazon Fresh service will start today in London and parts of the South East and will be extended to “millions of other” locations in the UK before the end of the year.

[cheshire man] 26/7/2020 08:13

Threadneedle UK Equity Income, Top ten holdings include healthcare giants AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, supermarket giant Morrisons

[loganair] 21/7/2020 20:08

Retail giant Walmart is back in talks to sell its majority stake in Asda, a year after having a £10billion merger with Sainsbury's blocked.

The US supermarket said it's revived talks with potential investors after putting the sale on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It comes just over a year after the competition and markets authority (CMA) blocked a takeover deal with Sainsbury's over fears it would lead to higher food and fuel prices for consumers in the UK.

A Walmart spokesman said it was the "right time" to revive the talks.

"Walmart and Asda have restarted conversations with a small number of third-party investors who are interested in acquiring a stake in Asda and partnering with Walmart, following renewed inbound interest," a spokesman said.

Walmart, which purchased Leeds-based Asda in 1999, has overhauled its international strategy in recent years to focus on new markets, such as Asia, where it has forged alliances with local partners, such as JD.com in China.

There is renewed confidence that Walmart will finally be able to exit the UK sooner rather than later. But to do so, Walmart’s Asda Price has to be right.

[loganair] 21/7/2020 17:16

WM Morrison saw the strongest growth of the big four grocers in this period, with its sales growth accelerating to 17.4% from 10.5% a month ago, its growth ahead of the market in the past 12 weeks and gaining market share for the first time since 2015.

While down from its peak, strong sales looks likely to continue to be elevated for the supermarkets because of the continued worries about the coronavirus, Kantar's McKevitt suggested.

“Despite pubs, bars and restaurants re-opening recently, more than half of consumers say they are still uncomfortable with visiting a pub and 42% with visiting a café or restaurant,” he said, pointing to take-home alcohol sales up 41% as an example.

Promotional activity also picked up in the latest four weeks, with 29% of sales including some type of discount.

“Retailers scaled back promotions at the start of lockdown as they prioritised serving as many customers as possible and keeping shelves full,” said McKevitt.

“Now, they are putting the emphasis back on deals."

“Promotional levels are still behind the pre-crisis level of 31% but, particularly given that the 2008 recession led to shoppers seeking out more discounts, we expect the grocers to bring in more enticing offers to attract cash-strapped shoppers in the months ahead.”

City analysts are increasingly of a similar view.

“The legacies of the Coronavirus crisis are yet to be fully understood but we feel the contraction of [food and beverage outlets] alongside [the working from home trend] represent permanent shifts, as is the stepped change in online,” said Clive Black of broker Shore Capital.

“The superstores are well-placed to harness these processes, much more so that the non-online German discounters and M&S, the latter with its substantial urban centre/travel hub trade.”

Analysts at UBS recently said their own research indicates the higher level of online grocery use is “likely here to stay, though the dramatic growth will likely normalise”.

Surveys by the Swiss bank's show 88% of households shopping online say that their grocery spend online will remain the same or increase in the coming weeks, while 71% of those said they will shop online as often or maybe even more after the Covid-19 situation improves.

[loganair] 21/7/2020 12:54

Tesco's market share continues to fall now down to just 26.7%. Just think a little over 10 years ago their market share stood at c33%.

Sainsbury's and Asda's market share also continue to fall whereas Morrison's who do not really have any convenience stores market share rose to 10.3% from a low of a few months ago of 9.9%.

Lidl's market share, just down 0.1% over the several month covid period is holding up better than Aldi's which is down 0.4% over the same period, maybe because Lidl are opening up a c3 new stores every week.

The biggest winner seems to be the Co-op who has seen its market share rise from 6.0% to 7.2% over the past few months while Iceland has gone up from 2.2% to 2.5% market share.

Over the past year Ocado's market share has increased from 1.2% to 1.7%.

Note - Kantar's figures are always skewed as they do not include the 3.3% market share of M&S Simply Food and therefore in reality the market shares are lower then Kantar report, Tesco's for example is most probably well under 26%.

[muffinhead] 21/7/2020 08:37

Kantar latest

[scotches] 20/7/2020 16:53

Aggression from Tesco is keeping a lid on grocer SPs.

Come the recession no way do the discount folk (volk?) get a free pass to expand this time.

[dondee] 20/7/2020 12:11

A good buying opportunity here.

[scotches] 14/7/2020 08:45

"Equity strategists at Morgan Stanley sounded a positive note on so-called 'value' stocks, arguing that the economic cycle was shifting into a 'recovery regime' - but there was catch....


From among UK-listed shares with a positive or neutral disruption score, with 'overweight' or 'neutral' recommendations and whose two-year forward valuations were in the bottom-half of their 10-year range they found: BT Group, British American Tobacco, Sainsbury, Vodafone, Morrison, BAE Systems, Glencore, Tesco, Smiths Group, Pearson, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments."

[muffinhead] 10/7/2020 00:31

Land and labour for farming is cheap in Africa

"Aldi, one of the UK’s leading supermarkets, has extended its partnership with Farm Africa for a further two years to 2022"


All supermarkets source where cheapest to maintain profit margins and feed customers at the lowest price, to the broadest standard.

[muffinhead] 10/7/2020 00:03

The price of most commodities have dropped drastically... it's an international market and come Brexit at end 2020, British farmers will need to be internationally competitive or go out of business

Chicken market price chart



Where Tesco buying agents go, others will follow. It is up to government to maintain UK standards and only protect stategic sectors where it is in the national interest to charge the consumer more than the free market. Somehow I don't see the government introducing the modern equivalent of the "corn laws" to protect tenant farmers on the eve of Brexit.

[johnwise] 09/7/2020 20:41

Farmers raise concern as Tesco demands supplier price cuts


But concerns have now been raised by the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA), which said that retailers were 'fixated' with driving down prices to 'unsustainable levels'.

TFA chief executive, George Dunn said farmers had 'lulled themselves into a false sense of security' in thinking that the retailer food market had 'changed'.

"British farmers produce food to some of the highest standards internationally, but this cannot be done if they are unable to secure a fair margin on that production.

"Retailers like Tesco should be looking at how they can cut costs in their own businesses, rather than trying to bully suppliers into accepting lower prices for high quality products," he said.

[johnwise] 08/7/2020 13:37

Meanwhile, the Aldi supermarket chain has followed Waitrose in pledging its support for British farmers by vowing never to sell chlorine-washed chicken or hormone-treated beef.