Following today’s release of Morrisons’s figures for the 13 weeks ending 26 April 2026; Eleanor Simpson-Gould, senior retail analyst at GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, offers her view: “Morrisons’ FYQ2 update is constructive on profit and strategy execution, but unexciting on topline sales momentum. That said, Q3 sales-to-date are said to be encouraging and Morrisons plans to act opportunistically over Father’s Day and the duration of the World Cup. Over Q2, group like-for-like sales rose 2.2% and total sales increased 1.7% to £4.0bn for the 13 weeks to 26 April 2026. A credible result given the intense promotional environment, but it leaves Morrisons lagging the faster-growing grocery leaders and indicates limited near-term momentum to outperform the market. The more encouraging element is earnings progression, with underlying EBITDA up 5.7% to £323m in H1, suggesting profit resilience is driven more by cost control than volume growth.
“Several elements in Morrisons’ strategy are encouraging, including seasonal trading execution and improved customer loyalty metrics. Online remains a relative bright spot, with ‘Morrisons Now’ delivering double-digit online growth and ‘More Cards’ active users rising to 8 million. The grocer’s acceleration of ‘Morrisons Daily’ store openings via franchising, with 30 new openings in Q2 and 52 in the first half, is a capital-light route to expansion but heightens the risk of inconsistent store standards, weaker compliance and harder-to-police service quality. This can all undermine brand perception if governance is not tight. Notably, the update does not mention Morrisons’ plan to close 100 former McColl’s stores, a significant strategic development which underlines the grocer is experiencing tough trading conditions and is actively reshaping its estate to cull loss-making stores.
“Morrisons is right to focus on cost savings, targeted loyalty offers and competitive pricing to defend volumes in a highly competitive market, especially while input-cost inflation remains a risk to margins. The key question is whether these measures can secure stronger sales growth, retain brand perception and support market share, rather than simply protecting profit through tighter cost control.”
