"Biggest ever" Halloween boosts sales at Morrisons

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 03 November, 2016

High street retailer Morrisons saw a boost to its seasonal trading sales thanks to Halloween, where sales are up 20% year-on-year.

Morrisons has languished in the middle of the supermarket category for some time, failing to establish a clear identity unlike the discounters and the top end supermarkets like Waitrose and M&S.

But the retailer has profited from the growing demand for seasonal product lines, and "by listening to customers, [has become] more relevant around key seasons and events".

"Halloween is far more popular in the UK than a decade ago and the supermarkets are one of the main drivers of this. Morrisons has done a great job cashing in on the Halloween season giving their profits a real boost last month, but the management still have their work cut out to establish the brand's key strengths," Martin Lane, from price comparison site Money, explained.

"While there are some encouraging signs, Morrisons are yet to establish a clear personality, something that budget stores like Aldi and Lidl and high-end supermarkets like Waitrose have done to great effect.

"The pressure is on, but if their Halloween success is anything to go by, I predict their Christmas profits could be merry and bright."

The company's Q3 results showed that during the weeks to 30 October, sales excluding fuel were down 1.2% (up 1.1% including fuel), reflecting the impact of supermarket closures and the exit of Morrisons' convience store chain, M Local.

Like-for-like sales excluding fuel were up 1.6% (up 3.4% including fuel).

Work to become "improve the shopping trip" and to become "more competitive" for customers meant that prices fell during the quarter, and transactions rose by 4.1%.

During the period, Morrisons also introduced a premium range, The Best, in the vein of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference or Tesco Finest

Hundreds of products have been launched in the range and more are due in the run-up to Christmas.

David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, gave some perspective.

"Our like-for-like sales have now been positive for a year, which is thanks to the hard work and dedication of the whole Morrisons team," he said.

"There is a lot more we plan to do. We will keep investing in becoming more competitive and improving the shopping trip, and I am confident we will serve our customers even better during the important trading period ahead."

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