Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland,[3] and one in Gibraltar.[4][5] The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.[6]
This article is about the British supermarket. For other uses, see Morrison's (disambiguation) and Morrison (disambiguation).Morrisons
Retail
1899
Bradford, England
Rami Baitiéh (CEO)
- Books
- Clothing
- Florist
- Food and drink
- Homeware
- Magazines
- Petrol
- Tobacco
£251 million (2022)[1]
—£25 million (2022)[1]
110,000 (2021)[2]
Founded in 1899 by William Morrison, hence the abbreviation Wm Morrison, it began as an egg and butter stall in Rawson Market, Bradford. Until 2004, its store locations were focused in the North of England but, with the takeover of Safeway in that year, the company's presence increased significantly in the South of England, Wales and Scotland. As of February 2021, Morrisons employed 110,000 employees and served around 11 million customers each week.[2]
The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) in October 2021. Many changes were made after the takeover, and the company was struggling financially.
Morrisons is the fifth largest supermarket in the United Kingdom by market share (8.8%),[7] overtaken for fourth place by Aldi in September 2022.[8]
Former operations[edit]
Kiddicare[edit]
In 2011, Morrisons bought children's retailer Kiddicare for £70 million to give it the knowledge to sell clothing and homewares online.[110] In 2012 10 former Best Buy stores from the Carphone Warehouse were acquired to expand Kiddicare into retail stores.[111] Kiddicare was sold to the Endless private equity firm for £2 million in July 2014, and sold on to Worldstores two months later for an undisclosed sum.[112]
FreshDirect[edit]
Morrisons purchased a 10% stake in New York-based online grocer FreshDirect for £31 million in 2011. After having sent a team to New York to learn from the business ahead of the predicted launch in 2013, Morrisons began a home delivery initiative in January 2014. In March 2014 Morrisons CEO Dalton Phillips announced the company had agreed to sell its stake in FreshDirect due to financial difficulties the company was facing and, as it had set up its own online shopping site, it no longer needed FreshDirect.[113] The sale was completed in August 2016 for £45 million.[114]