LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - British supermarket group Morrisons on Wednesday reported a 3.4% increase in like-for-like sales over the six weeks to January 4, an improvement on the 2.4% rise in the
Morrisons Reports Flat Earnings, Cites Rising Costs as Key Factor
Morrisons Earnings Overview
LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - British supermarket group Morrisons on Wednesday reported flat core earnings for its 2024/25 year, blaming higher costs, but said trading improved over the key Christmas period.
Impact of Rising Costs
The UK's fifth largest grocer, owned by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, said underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were static at 835 million pounds ($1.1 billion) in its year to October 26 despite revenue rising 3.2% to 15.8 billion pounds.
Sales Performance During Christmas
The earnings outcome was attributed to a 200 million pounds increase in costs as a result of the UK government's 2024 budget, the impact of a cyber incident in the first quarter and higher than expected inflation.
Comparison with Competitors
While like-for-like sales growth in its fourth quarter to October 26 dipped to 2.4%, having been 3.0% in the third quarter, it rose to 3.4% in the six weeks to January 4, helped by a 17.4% jump in sales of Morrisons' 'The Best' premium own label range.
"We had a good Christmas in 2025, providing a solid foundation for the first quarter," said CEO Rami Baitiéh.
However, industry data, published earlier this month, showed Morrisons continuing to underperform rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's and discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Tesco and Sainsbury's published robust Christmas trading updates earlier this month.
Morrisons said its debt was further reduced in its 2024/25 year and is down 46% from its 2022 peak.
($1 = 0.7443 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
