Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC
Q1 Interim Management Statement - 13 weeks to 29 April 2012
Morrisons has made a satisfactory start to its new financial year.
As expected, the economic environment for the consumer has remained challenging, with the high price of oil and other commodity prices putting pressure on disposable incomes. Against this backdrop we have continued to keep prices low for our customers without compromising on Morrisons quality.
In the quarter total sales* excluding fuel were up by 1.5% (3.1% including fuel) and like for like sales* were down 1.0% (up 0.9% including fuel).
We continue to focus on the delivery of our previously announced range of strategic and operating initiatives which, combined with a close management of our cost base, gives us confidence of achieving continued profitable growth. An update on progress will be provided at our Interim Results in September.
We are well advanced on our programme to retire £1bn of equity over the two years to March 2013. To date we have acquired and cancelled 168m shares at a total investment of £491m. The financial position of the Group remains strong.
Outlook
The uncertain economic background is expected to remain challenging for the consumer and accordingly the Board remains cautious. Our performance in the first quarter was broadly in line with our expectations and our financial outlook for the year remains unchanged.
