Industry recognition
Morrisons success in the past year has been recognised with numerous industry awards, including Retailer of the Year from Retail Week, the Grocer of the Year from The Grocer and Supermarket of the Year at the Retail Industry Awards. This is welcome recognition of the terrific efforts of all our 124,000 employees, and on behalf of the Board I want to express our thanks for their dedication, hard work and professionalism. I am pleased that our growth in the year will provide a profit share pool for them of £34m, a 13% increase on the previous year.
Charitable donations
Our colleagues across the business are always enthusiastic supporters of our charitable activities. Our stores become involved in many initiatives in support of their local communities, such as Remembrance Day collections, and national events like Children in Need where we passed a cheque for £250,000 to the BBC again this year. Our own nominated charity of the year was Protecting Generations for Generations, a partnership between Help the Aged and Childline, and we were delighted to support them with funding of over £930,000 during the year.
Outlook
Your Board views both the short and the long term outlook for Morrisons positively. The business is well on track to achieve its goal of being the food specialist for everyone, and the Executive team continues to see opportunities to invest in the business for further growth. We expect to open c.350,000 square feet of new retail space in the coming year, on top of c.500,000 square feet that we have agreed to acquire from the Co-operative Group, reflecting our confidence in the attractions of Morrisons core grocery business.
In the current economic environment we expect the competitive landscape to be extremely challenging. However, the Group’s balance sheet is strong, and our financing arrangements are prudent. We will remain focused on delivering freshness and value to our customers.
