Morrisons battles Aldi and Lidl with 400 new comfort shops

Smaller shops: Morrisons said it intends to open around 400 more Morrisons Daily stores to hit a total of 2,000 in 2025

Morrisons is opening more convenience stores as its price war with Aldi and Lidl shows signs of paying off.

The supermarket group said it intends to open around 400 more Morrisons Daily shops to hit a total of 2,000 in 2025.

Since its private equity takeover, it has lost customers to the discounters and conceded its status as Britain’s fourth-biggest grocer to Aldi two years ago. But boss Rami Baitieh said yesterday a price match scheme launched in February had enjoyed a ‘great start’. 

He said there was ‘increasing confidence’ among customers as Morrisons posted second quarter sales for the three months to April 28 of £3.8billion, up 3.7 per cent on a year earlier. 

This drove profits in the first half of its financial year, excluding petrol stations, up 16 per cent to £321million. 

Morrisons also made some progress in slashing its huge debt pile, bringing it down 35 per cent to £4billion from a peak of £6.2billion.