Morrisons IS to close 10 stores, putting more than 400 jobs at risk, and part company with its chief executive after announcing a festive season sales slump.
Dalton Philips is to step down after five years at the struggling supermarket business in a move that the incoming chairman said was not due to the fall in Christmas sales.
The Bradford-based chain reported like-for-like sales fell 3.1% in the six weeks to January 4.
Andrew Higginson, who is due to become chairman this month, said the company’s board believed the push to return the business to growth was “best done under new leadership”.
Mr Philips said: “I’m very sad to be leaving, but when a board wants to make a change you accept that and move on.”
Morrisons also announced plans to close 10 loss-making smaller stores, putting more than 400 jobs at risk. With the retailer’s festive trading sales figures meeting City expectations, shares in Morrisons jumped 4.47% following the leadership change.
As part of a wider plan to invest £1 billion in price cuts over three years, initiatives from Mr Philips included a new loyalty card scheme promising to match prices at discounters Aldi and Lidl.
The strategy could be paying off after the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel pointed to an improved sales trend.
A key performance indicator measuring items per basket at Morrisons was down by 0.2% on a year earlier, compared with 2.4% earlier in the financial year.
The decline in the number of transactions was also reduced.
In the latest figures Tesco’s sales fell 1.2% compared with last year, and sales fell by 1.6% at both Asda and Morrisons,.
Meanwhile, upmarket Waitrose made progress.
Fraser McKevitt of Kantar Worldpanel said the seasonal nature of the share increase meant there was a strong possibility that Asda will retake the number two spot from Sainsbury’s later in the year.