Morrisons’ woes wipe £2.6bn off supermarkets March 13, 2014 FEARS of a new supermarket price war wiped around £2.6bn off the combined value of Britain’s major grocers yesterday after Morrisons launched a major assault on its discount rivals. Shares in Morrisons plunged 12 per cent – to their lowest level since 2008 – after it revealed it would invest £1bn in slashing prices over [...]
Morrisons cuts prices after new profit warning March 13, 2014 MORRISONS sent shockwaves through the food retail industry yesterday after warning that underlying profits would halve this year and announced plans to spend £1bn on cutting prices over the next three years. Chief executive Dalton Philips said it will invest £300m this year to narrow the price gap with discounters, following similar moves by Tesco, [...]
Bottom Line: This is the end of the big four supermarkets March 13, 2014 DALTON Philips kicked off more than just a price war yesterday. By promising to slash prices in an effort to turn around Morrisons’ fortunes, he also exposed a growing schism at the heart of the British grocery market. For years, supermarket analysts have talked about the big four (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) but with [...]
London Report: Supermarket fears lead FTSE to a fifth consecutive drop March 13, 2014 BRITISH shares fell for a fifth straight session yesterday, dragged down by supermarket stocks after WM Morrison cut its profit outlook, as well as by escalating tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Morrison’s was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 index, plunging 11.9 per cent, and its revised outlook triggered a sell-off [...]
Letters to the Editor – 14/03 – Splitting debts, Best of Twitter March 13, 2014 Splitting debts [Re: The big independence lie: Scotland could keep the pound, Wednesday] Is Scotland walking away from its “share” of UK debt really that absurd? Did the Baltic states take any Russian debt after the breakup of the Soviet Union? No. Of course, independence supporters have proposed that Scotland would indeed take on its [...]
What you need to know before the US open March 13, 2014 US stock futures are pointing to a slightly better open for markets today, and no doubt the slew of data just out – all of which is better-than-expected – means investors have plenty to digest. Bonds have slipped after the encouraging data, with the dollar gaining ground against the euro, too. Initial jobless claims fell [...]
3 ways Morrisons will change your supermarket March 13, 2014 Morrisons’ extensive and rapid loss last year, and its foreseeable future profit warning, perhaps put it ahead of other supermarkets in terms of how quickly it needs to change. But the changes it needs and is planning to make affect all mainstream supermarkets. Indeed, the shares of all of them have lost this morning on [...]
Supermarkets are getting crushed March 13, 2014 Morrisons has plummeted into the red, announcing a £176m pre-tax profit loss, having made a £897m profit a year earlier. The supermarket’s planning a £1bn property selloff over the next three years, in a bid to ameliorate the situation. It’s issued a dire profit warning, too, which has been described this morning on the BBC [...]
Morrisons shares slump 10pc after £176m loss March 13, 2014 Supermarket chain William Morrison has seen its shares drop by 10 per cent after reporting a pre tax loss of £176m for the year ended 2 February. Like-for-like sales were also down 2.8 per cent while turnover fell two per cent. The primary reasons for the losses were the £903m write-down relating to the value [...]
What you need to know before the open March 13, 2014 Data from China will keep markets on their toes this morning, as ongoing concerns about the health of the world’s second-largest economy continue to weigh down sentiment. Despite weaker numbers, though, European bourses look set to open slightly higher, after yesterday’s strong declines. Chinese industrial production in February came in at 8.6 per cent from [...]