Morrisons trading update for Q4 and full year 2022/23

- Broader, Stronger Sales Growth -
- Six consecutive quarters of LFL improvement -

Morrisons has today updated investors on Q4 performance together with full year trading for  the 52 weeks ending 29 October 2023.

Key points

• Full year total revenue excluding fuel up 2.7% to £14.9bn
• Full year ex-fuel LFL sales up 1.8%
• Full year EBITDA up 6.5% to £970m; with Q4 up 8.5%
• Q4 total revenue excluding fuel up 3.2% to £3.6bn
• Q4 ex-fuel LFL sales up 3.3%; a sixth consecutive quarter of LFL improvement
• Strong progress throughout the year on price competitiveness
• A further 190 McColl’s stores converted in Q4 (plus an additional 131 in Q1 this year)  taking the total now trading as Morrisons Daily to over 800. Like for like uplifts on  conversion of c.20% with growth continuing into second year
• Further growth in use of Morrisons More card
• c. £450 million of sale and leaseback transactions completed during the year;  Morrisons estate remains over 80% freehold
• Free cash flow of £542m in full year; £30m in Q4 
• Rami Baitiéh appointed CEO, starting in November 2023
• Key customer satisfaction metrics improving strongly

Across the board, Morrisons has continued the momentum developed in the latter stages of  last year, with sales growth across the business, growth in EBITDA and positive free cash  flow.  

Group revenue for the year, excluding fuel, was up 2.7% to £14.9bn and Group LFL sales,  excluding fuel, were up 3.3% for Q4 and 1.8% for the year, representing six consecutive  quarters of LFL improvement.  

Retail sales, which includes supermarkets, online and convenience (from Q3 onwards),  contributed 2.9% in the quarter. Within that, online grew 1.6% and convenience, which  includes McColl’s, grew by 9%. Wholesale contributed a further 0.4% with double-digit wholesale LFL growth maintained throughout the year. 

Net new space was a small negative in the quarter, following the closure of four stores. This  was partially offset by new stores at Bath Southgate, Chelmsford, Newcastle Great Park and  a replacement store at Brentford.  

Underlying EBITDA was £970m, up by 6.5% from £911m last year.  

Rami Baitiéh, Chief Executive, said: 

“I have been at Morrisons for only a few months, but it’s already clear that we have an  abundance of talented colleagues, well located shops, high class food making operations  and a real point of difference with our Market Street butchers, fishmongers, bakers,  cheesemongers and deli counters. We’re competitive online, our convenience and  wholesale operations are growing fast and I have seen the affection and goodwill that our  customers, supplier partners and farmers have for Morrisons.  

“Reporting today our sixth consecutive quarter of like for like sales improvement is very  positive. But there is so much more we can do, and together with my colleagues, we are  developing plans to reinvigorate, refresh and strengthen Morrisons and to start a new  chapter – which begins with our customers. Across the business we are listening hard to  what our customers are telling us and taking action, and we are just beginning to see our customer satisfaction scores improve. This will be the bedrock of our next chapter.  

“I would like to thank our exceptional colleagues for their hard work throughout the year and  especially over the critical Christmas period. I’m confident that Morrisons has the people,  the talent, the assets and the desire to chart a bright future in UK grocery by giving  customers more and more reasons to shop at Morrisons.”

Jo Goff, CFO, said:  

“This has been a year of steady progress as we continued to invest in price, customer  service, loyalty and made further improvements in our own brand range and in quality.  

“We’ve made good progress on our working capital improvement process with a further £100 million in Q4, taking the total for the year to £300 million, more than half the £500 million  multi-year target and ahead of our expectations.”