Morrison (wm) Supermarkets Share Discussion Threads

[cwa1] 18/2/2021 14:14

Increased holding by Silchester announced:-

[scotches] 18/2/2021 10:33

Times article indicates that Iceland stores have refused to pay their rates bill and will retain the cash much of which was spent on buying out a foreign shareholder.

The article also confirms that the Co-op, Waitrose and M&S will not return the rates cash. (Neither did MRW partner McColls).

The boss of Iceland has claimed the frozen foods retailer cannot afford to pay back business rates relief after the heavy costs of making shops safe and buying out its foreign shareholder.

MRW did return the rates cash which will be reflected in next month's profit dive.




"Richard Walker, 40, managing director of Iceland and son of Malcolm Walker, 75, the supermarket’s founder, has defended the grocer’s decision to keep £40 million of taxpayer support by arguing that it helped meet the “very substantial direct costs” of making shops Covid-secure, hiring 6,000 new workers to expand its delivery service and giving staff sick pay.

The same argument was employed by rival supermarkets before they bowed to intense criticism that they were “lockdown winners”. Grocers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi have handed back £1.8 billion of business rates relief which the government made available last March to help the high street through the Covid-19 turmoil. Waitrose, Co-op and M&S have also refused to hand back rates relief. "

[wiganer] 18/2/2021 10:24

Less cheap but still too cheap.

[philanderer] 17/2/2021 18:42

Morrisons Unveils ‘Market Kitchen’ in New Camden Store

[wiganer] 17/2/2021 15:07

I bought in today. Just too cheap.

[muffinhead] 13/2/2021 19:32

Lidl Accounts at company house to Feb 2020... pre-pandemic
The cash flow statement is not reported but can be found buried within the German group accounts


Not so nice to see many products sourced from EU countries... stated as a Brexit risk

Post Brexit....
Aldi to boost annual spending on UK-made food and drink by £3.5bn

[muffinhead] 13/2/2021 18:49

EU regulations not helping Lidl/Aldi at UK ports either


Food inflation concerns deepen as prices reach highest level since 2014


World food prices are at a six-year high


Fast food outlets/restaurants/home cooking....
Soaring vegetable oil prices set to drive food inflation

[nerdlinger] 13/2/2021 16:34

Aldi price match - why now? Have the big 4 sensed weakness? Perhaps since Brexit as Aldi & Lidl never really committed to the UK in non-perishable production which I think is all still elsewhere in the EU. They might think they can now see off the Germans like they did with Kwik Save and Netto etc, to paraphrase the late sir Ken, iirc.

Lidl recently reported a loss:

[scotches] 12/2/2021 21:11

It’s only seven years since Tesco’s then boss was telling the market it was “impossible” to win against the likes of Aldi and Lidl. “Discounters will never allow you to be cheaper,” said Phil Clarke.

A lot has changed since then. Tesco launched its Aldi Price Match last March. It’s been so successful Sainsbury’s followed suit this week. When even Sainsbury’s is taking a tilt at Aldi on price you know the market has changed a lot.

The promise is on fewer items: 250 vs 500 at Tesco. But it’s nevertheless revealing. It tells us Aldi is weaker than at any time since 2009. The Christmas results were bad enough. But its latest four-week sales, according to Kantar, were only up 3.8%.

There are many reasons for this: to varying degrees, the return of the big weekly shop; the growth of home cooking; the cramped footprints of its stores vs the wide aisles of the big four superstores and hypermarkets; the lack of online capabilities and distraction of click & collect; the slowdown of its store opening programme (due to the pandemic), but also cannibalisation of same store sales as the discounter has saturated towns. And yes: there’s Tesco’s Aldi Price Match. Plus, not only are Iceland, B&M and Poundland coming further to the fore – Lidl has also been kicking lumps out of it with punchy promos. Not that Lidl can rest on its laurels: after a strong Christmas the latest four-week sales were only 5% up.

Sainsbury’s Aldi Price Match is ‘really taking on Tesco’
Sainsbury’s move is above all revealing for what it says about Sainsbury’s. Following the launch of its discounter brands, it’s a further acknowledgment that Tesco’s strategy is working.

It says new boss Simon Roberts – and new food commercial director Rhian Bartlett – won’t be switching back to a multibuy strategy, but gives Sainsbury’s a shiny new hat on which to hang its value credentials in the recession: a commitment to medium-low pricing, selling commodities on the cheap, buying the right to make a margin on luxury and innovation .

Who knows if it will work. It’s only 250 items: c1% of its range (12.5% of Aldi’s). And Aldi has deeper pockets and an inherently more efficient business model. But the pandemic has thrown the economics of modern grocery on its head. Sainsbury’s sales are up 12.2%!

Almost more surprising, however, is that Aldi has been strangely neutered on the marketing front by Tesco’s Price Match. As Clarke said, the discounters will never allow you to be cheaper. But its response almost feels like permission.

[muffinhead] 12/2/2021 16:41

Ocado is basically a technology company and it is gaining new partners to sell it's technology to..
From the results presentation, page 8 shows the segmental breakdown of revenue streams



Retail which is what most people associate with the company shows....
£148.5 million EBITDA on £2188.60 million revenue

It is not impossible that in time Ocado Retail becomes a separate entity from the technology part of the business. Supermarkets are a mature market but if it is Ocado technology that improves sector productivity and reduces online costs, then Ocado Retail can be sold and the company focuses on selling high margin Ocado technology to more "partners" around the world.

[muffinhead] 12/2/2021 16:14

Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) is for operating online grocery businesses....see slide 31

[muffinhead] 12/2/2021 16:10

Ocado is working on smaller format Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFC) .... robots in the stock room of the larger supermarkets. ISF software is the necessary link with CFC.

[muffinhead] 12/2/2021 15:59

Slide 31 Ocado results presentation


2021 Morrisons to have 400 stores go live with Ocado ISF software

What?
In-store fulfilment (ISF) software

[nerdlinger] 12/2/2021 15:37

from the ic article, gamma squeeze is a new one to me so I found this definition:

"A “gamma squeeze” is a trading terminology that refers to massive call buying leading to higher stock prices, which leads to more call buying, a higher stock price and so on. Calls, a form of option, increase in value when the price of the underlying stock increases."

that would be nice

[philanderer] 12/2/2021 14:12

Rethink supermarkets and start with Morrisons

Investors should reappraise the supermarket's post-pandemic market position

[ygor705] 12/2/2021 13:52

Schroders appears to be dumping stock which probably accounts for the recent fall. To my mind, the internet is now causing the furniture to be shifted around in the food retailing sector and those who think that things will go back to where they were pre-pandemic are delusional IMO. Ocado has already driven quite a bit of change in the sector and I'm just waiting for a big player to come in and really shake things up. My bet is that it will be Amazon.

[nerdlinger] 10/2/2021 09:12

Could be (passive?) collusion of several hedge funds keeping below the declaration threshold of half a percent of issued shares. Recently GLG Partners have popped their head above the parapet a few times and that bizarre 5 week exposure of the otherwise unheard of State of Wisconsin Investment Board over Christmas.
Who knows though, could be predators like Amazon or private equity trying to lower the price for a bid, not sure if that ever works, or maybe just spreadbetting bookies harvesting their punters' deposits.

[muffinhead] 09/2/2021 16:13

It is about time the big four started to separate out online and click n collect sales and give profit figures

Posted above.......


"Analysts at Bain & Company, the consultancy, reckon that it costs between £6 to £8 to deliver a single order because of drivers’ wages, fuel and the cost of maintaining temperature-controlled vans. Industry experts estimate that it costs supermarkets about £5 per order for a click-and-collect service. “Even with efficiency improvements the online channel remains dilutive to store economics,” Jonathon Ringer, at Bain, said."

[justiceforthemany] 08/2/2021 16:48

Short sellers have targeted this and are blatantly manipulating the share price so it drops out of the FTSE 100. Will represent a great buying opportunity if it does. 50-100% upside if it hits 150p. Amazon buy out also possible.

[muffinhead] 08/2/2021 02:40

Supermarket chiefs ‘relaxed’ about Covid-19 windfall tax

"Next month Morrisons will reveal that its annual pre-tax profit halved to about £210 million, despite increasing its sales more rapidly than its “Big Four” rivals Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda."

[c0cky] 06/2/2021 11:58

Just examining Morrison's financials compared to other supermarkets. What a strong position! Lowest pe. Best dividend cover. Increasing market share and all round good egg company. I'm stake building here! ... Despite it may well fallout of FTSE 100. Good luck everyone.