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Morrisons Sales Fall But At Slower Rate

Morrisons Sales Fall But At Slower Rate

The supermarket chain Morrisons has seen its like-for-like sales drop by 2.9% in the first quarter of the year.

The results for the 13-week period to May are the first for the new chief executive David Potts.

The figures show they have arrested the big falls seen in recent quarters - down 7.1% for the same period a year ago - but like the other "Big Four" supermarket giants continue to struggle in the face of stiff competition and an industry price war.

Shares fell 7% following the update.

The company said that during the period, more stores were closed than were opened leading to an overall fall in retail space of 50,000 sq ft.

Steps were also being taken to "simplify" head office, which is anticipated to lead to one-off costs of up to £40m during 2015/16.

Morrisons said in its interim management statement: "Our priorities are to improve the customers' shopping trip and make our core supermarkets strong again.

"We are listening hard to customers and colleagues and, wherever possible, we are responding quickly."

Mr Potts, who joined the business on 16 March, said: "This is a business with many attributes, some unique.

"Our task is to use those advantages to improve the shopping trip to customers and create value."

The firm is expecting underlying profit before tax to be higher in the second half than the first.

It said the focus continued to be "to invest more for customers in order to build trading momentum".