Gloom for Morrisons 
on Christmas trading

Sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, are expected to be down at least two per cent year-on-year.

That would follow a third-quarter fall of 2.1 per cent – piling more pressure on chief executive Dalton Philips.

A host of other retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, also report Christmas sales figures this week, with subdued growth expected. Investec Securities analyst Dave McCarthy said: “Christmas started slowly and never got going. Stores were quiet and consumers were cautious.”

Analysts believe the Bradford-based firm’s sales slide could partly reflect lack of an online presence and minimal convenience store presence. Mr McCarthy believes its underlying sales could fall 2.5 per cent.

“Latest Nielsen data showed total sales down over two per cent, so we see little reason to believe that this disappointing performance relative to the industry has improved,” he said.

“We therefore expect total sales down about one per cent and like-for-like sales down 2.5 per cent.

“But there is a positive calendar benefit in here of about one per cent, so the underlying position could be worse.

“Morrisons has no internet offer and a minimal convenience offer, so is missing out on sales growth from these areas.”

Analysts forecast market leader Tesco, which updates on Thursday, will say like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, grew 0.5-1.5 per cent in its home market, having fallen 0.6 per cent in its third quarter.

Sainsbury’s, Britain’s third-biggest grocer, has guided to second-half like-for-like sales growth similar to the 1.7 per cent in its first half. For its third-quarter update on Wednesday, analysts forecast like-for-like growth of about 0.9 per cent.