Morrisons is preparing to transform hundreds of corner shops across the south of England in a bid to boost shopper numbers. The supermarket chain will convert the shops into its own branded convenience stores next year.
Based in Bradford, the northern chain is planning to open 250 new “Morrisons Daily” convenience stores by offering convenience shop owners the chance to convert their stores into Morrisons franchises. The expansion aims to focus on areas where it is underrepresented – including cities in the South as well as the Midlands.
The move will pave the way for the supermarket chain in its efforts to expand, after opening around 160 of its convenience stores already this year. Shoreditch, Southend-on Sea and Paignton in Devon have been among some of these new sites..
At the moment, Morrisons has around 1,700 convenience stores, 700 of which are run by franchisees. The other 1,000 stores were bought over from McColl’s in 2022 and have now been rebranded as Morrisons Daily sites.
A spokesman said the new convenience stores were a “key part of Morrisons growth strategy”.
It comes following a pledge by Morrisons chief Rami Baitieh to return the company to “peak form”.
Mr Baitieh has championed the convenience store strategy after doing something similar at French supermarket Carrefour.
Recent concerns have arisen that the supermarket has been losing ground to rivals.
In its most recent financial year, Morrisons sales fell by £1bn to £17bn, and this marked the supermarket’s lowest annual revenues since its private equity takeover in 2021.
The decline means that German discounter Lidl is now poised to overtake Morrisons as Britain’s fifth largest supermarket, as Morrisons was previously dropped behind Aldi in 2022.
A spokesman for Morrisons said: “We’re excited about the opportunity to expand further in this large and fragmented market.
“Over the last few years we’ve built a significant business of more than 1,700 stores and we have ambitious plans in place to bring Morrisons Daily to more customers across the UK with a franchise model that enables us to add new stores faster, in a capital light way.”
