Morrisons relishing price war despite Marmite-gate
Morrisons may have hiked the price of Marmite, but boss David Potts said today the supermarket was not backing off from the fierce industry price war and was relishing competition with rivals.
The grocer upped the cost of a jar of Marmite by 12.5% in response to supplier Unilever’s demands for higher prices to make up for the pound’s plunge in value.
Former Tesco executive Potts, brought in to revive the chain in March last year, said it had slashed prices on hundreds of products since the start of its financial year but had to “work with the grain” of changes in the economic backdrop, including Brexit and commodity market fluctuations.
However, he pledged to “do the very best going forward to be increasingly competitive regardless of the circumstances”. “We’re looking forward to it,” he added.
Morrisons today showed it is coping with the challenge, revealing a fourth straight quarter of sales growth in stores open for more than a year.
Same-store sales increased by 1.6% in the 13 weeks to October 30 and transactions grew by 4.1%.
It was helped by a bumper Halloween, which saw it shift 140,000 outfits and over a million pumpkins, and the recent launch of its extended premium range, called The Best.
More products, such as special gateaux, are set to be added to the range in time for the peak Christmas season.
But Potts insisted Morrisons remained in the “fix” phase and mustn’t “get ahead of ourselves”.
Shares in Morrisons, which have risen almost 50% this year, climbed 3p to 224.3p.
