Morrisons: Revenue creeps up as private equity-owned supermarket fights debt pile

Earnings at private equity-owned Morrisons have laid largely flat for the year, according to an update by the supermarket. 

Revenues excluding fuel topped however £14.9bn in the 2022/23 financial year up just 2.9 per cent the year before. Like-for-like sales also only managed to climb 1.8 per cent. 

Additionally, full year EBITDA crawled up 6.5 per cent  to £970m. 

Morrisons, who lost its ‘Big Four’ status to Aldi last year, has been ramping up deals on its loyalty card to compete with rivals amid a national cash crunch. 

Since its £7bn takeover by private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) the firm has battled a mounting debt pile of upwards of £5m. 

Today the firm said it completed a £450m of sale and leaseback transactions on its sites to help tackle the pile. 

Just yesterday, it also agreed to hand over all its 347 petrol stations to Motor Fuel Group (MFG), which is also owned by CD&R, in a £2.5bn push to clear its books. 

It mirrors a deal made by Asda last year, which saw the grocer acquire the UK division of EG Group’s petrol business. 

At the time it sparked concerns from the sector that an acquisition of this size could create issues with other competitors and raise fuel prices for consumers. 

Morrisons said the move would not impact pricing for customers. 

Rami Baitiéh, chief executive, said: “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.”

He added: “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.” 

Baitiéh, who was the former  Carrefour France boss, stepped into the role last November. 

He replaced longstanding chief David Potts, who has been in the role for nine years.