This is a non-story. As the article mentions at the end, they are just selling the site and then renting it back to themselves.
Ken is just a figurehead now. No control at all. Met the old git once, Redditch conversion. If he’d have spontaneously combusted, I’d have peed my pants just to spite him.
In the old head office, when he was top dog, he used to randomly go down to accounts and cast his eye over a few invoices. He took one look at the bill for pencils (pens not supplied by the company, you want one, bring one in, as too many folk took them home) and was so shocked that he sent the janitor out to buy a hacksaw, to cut every single box of pencils in the stationery room in half.
Cosmic:
This is a non-story. As the article mentions at the end, they are just selling the site and then renting it back to themselves.
Safeway did exactly the same thing donkeys ago. Warehouses don’t make the money, stores do. So why not generate some funds to build more stores, by doing the sell and rent-back thing.
You invest what you have where you will get the best return, but it seems the M boys are doing it to pay Ant & Dec and gay adverts.
When Ken first started media advertising, can’t remember it was tv or radio, he saw how much the voiceover was going to cost him. So he did it himself.
The problem is, supermarkets are now at saturation point. Laws are limiting how many superstores can be built, hence the moves into the convenience sector. So M are just freeing up assets, to add it to the profit statement. False economy in my mind.
I did retail (management) for 20 years. It was Morrisons that put me off it for good. I now drive a truck, and have a boss that says hello, how are you etc, not gives, or leaves me a list of crappy jobs to do the second I walk through the door.
I suppose it didn’t help that I was put into a store where the manager was ex-Safeway (sacked) had gone to work for them, only to find out that his post-merger Regional Director, was the area manager that had sacked him, and that had hired me (and took me for a coffee when he came into the store, not my boss)
He got demoted in the end, screwing one of the staff.
Is being sacked thus - still allowed these days? 
Don’t tell me you did it on the scissor lift? 
Just beat in mind that the reason that Aldi and Lidl can undercut their rivals is because 90% of their stock is imported and not British…and of course they use your labour to run a large part of their warehousing operation.
I won’t shop in them for that principle alone…they are using drivers to tip their win wagons, with no relevant training in using their equipment and saving hundreds of thousands pounds a year in doing it.
And so what, Tesco have you sitting half the day so on your principals then I shouldn’t shop there.
Lidl and Aldi are not breaking the law utilising the drivers, I don’t agree with it but I would be happy to tip myself in Tesco if it meant not waiting 3 hours.
All the big supermarkets are having to modify their operations.
Aldi Lidl and the like operated for years on 5% or less profit on turnover, the big names in rip off Britain at least twice that or more profit, the field is levelling (not before time) as it should in a european region which is a Britain now is, thanks in no small part to the Lidl and Aldi of this world.
They’ve got a long way to go before they are as efficient and as cost controlled as Aldi…amusing thing being that Aldi/Lidl staff (not necessarily those who push pens but those who graft) are usually better paid that their big supermarket equivalents.
every little helps, oh the bitter irony and disappointment in the city when toscos poor (Jesus wept how much money do these people need) published profits are still measured in £billions, reduced to tears i am… 
All the RDC ride roughshod with drivers and personally I would like to see drivers getting a fairer crack of the whip.
If that means less RDC’s then so be it there all greedy, to greedy.
I think it’s a bit Irish to sell a site then rent it back again being at the mercy of landlords t&c’s.
merc0447:
I think it’s a bit Irish to sell a site then rent it back again being at the mercy of landlords t&c’s.
its not that irish really, they paid to build them so they have capital ■■■■■■■ in the buildings and land, the tax implications are better for them to sell the land and the buildings and reinvest the money, then on rent back, that cost is tax deductible every year not just on the year of the original capital outlay, saves hundreds of thousands on their tax bill over the years 
Morrisons seem to lag behind their rivals and this is another example, this has been common practice for years you will find that most of the newer stores and DC’s of the major food retailers are also rented or leased.
They offer no online services, click and collect or home delivery and have not diversified into other areas, they recently announced £1billion of reductions over 1200 lines to try and fight off competition from Lidl and Aldi, and it’s expected the other big three will enter into a price war.
They cannot compete with the discount retailers they have much lower costs as some of the previous posts have highlighted, big supermarkets are not as big a rip off as you would think they have massive costs and very small profit margins they have to shift a lot of stuff to be profitable.
Agreed they have to shift a lot of stuff to make a profit but they plan for this, like the gas companies, they only make a small profit from each customer but they have millions of customers, add to that the market cost of gas is half what it was a year ago, they made average £46ish a customer now this year its average £90, odd a customer profit.
This relates to what supermarkets pay for their goods but more likely under private negotiation unlike the gas market on an open market so the supermarkets have more leverage.
The profits fluctuate as has been mentioned but its highly unlikely you will see one go into the red with no profit at all or a loss. Just the spin that the profit was lower than expected…we used to call it greed.
mike68:
They offer no online services, click and collect or home delivery and have not diversified into other areas
Not strictly true, Morrisons do now have a Home Delivery service but only in certain parts of the country at the moment, although it is slowly expanding.
They did diversify, they bought out Kiddicare a couple of years ago which at the time was just an online retailer. Morrisons opened up Kiddicare outlets throughout the country. However, they are now selling the Kiddicare part of their business.
Lee1976:
mike68:
They offer no online services, click and collect or home delivery and have not diversified into other areasNot strictly true, Morrisons do now have a Home Delivery service but only in certain parts of the country at the moment, although it is slowly expanding.
Well they do now (Ocado: bbc.com/news/business-22564676), but point taken, they are extremely late to the party.
Just think… If they do a deal with the sewage plant - we’ll all be renting our food as well. 