Retail giant Morrisons has made an announcement about its stores after dropping down to fifth in the list of top UK supermarkets this week. It's fallen below ASDA, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl.
But despite this, Morrisons has announced ambitions to open thousands more stores in the UK. It's hoped it will help people to get their shopping without needing to travel
The supermarket, founded in 1899 by William Morrison in Bradford, is also on track to open its 500th supermarket by 2023. Morrisons currently has 486 stores.
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Morrisons wholesale director Paul Dobson said in Grocery Gazette that the firm plans to open more of its convenience and forecourt sites. He said: “Ultimately our ambition is to have store numbers in the thousands, not the hundreds, in the future and by adding more high-quality retailers, we will build those numbers.
“Across Great Britain, 35% of the population are now within a 10-minute drive from a Morrisons Daily, which we think is good progress since starting off in 2017.”
In May, Morrisons bought convenience store chain McColl’s for £190.1million - saving the firm from administration. McColl's has more than 1,100 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales.
The firm employs around 16,000 staff, or roughly 6,000 full-time. The supermarket won a shootout after battling against Asda owner EG Group to rescue the convenience chain, taking it out of pre-pack administration on Monday 9 May.
Morrisons will also protect the pensions of all McColl's workers. The supermarket chain already runs hundreds of McColl's stores, which are branded as Morrisons Daily.
It's also a major supplier to McColl's, and provides products under the Safeway brand. Over 200 McColl stores had been converted to Morrison’s Daily. As well as McColl's stores, Morrisons also runs Martin's newsagents.
The firm has 755 McColl's stores, 270 called Morrisons Daily, 116 Martin's and eight called RS McColl, the latter all in Scotland. It has Post Office counters in a third of its 1,100 branches.
McColl's says 5million Brits visit one of its shops every week - around 7% of us. Morrisons has also turned down 'beep' sounds at their checkouts as a mark of respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Any music and tannoy announcements have also been banned inside the shops during the 10-day mourning period leading up to the funeral on September 19.
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