Morrisons will be hoping its move to offer shoppers a 5p per litre fuel discount after a £40 spend will boost its fortunes. (Ian West/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Grocer Morrisons is offering customers a 5p per litre fuel discount as it battles to regain market share and improve profits.
The supermarket, whose snap offer runs from today until Sunday 9 October, said customers must spend £40 in store, barring excluded items such as tobacco, lottery tickets and baby formula, to be eligible for the fuel discount that can be used at its petrol stations until 16 October.
Alongside this, Morrisons said it had reduced prices on 150 of its most popular products, which account for nearly 6 per cent of its total sales volume and mean an average saving of 14 per cent per product.
The company will be hoping to lure more customers back after seeing its earnings halved in its most recent quarter to £177 million from £365 million for the same period last year.
The battle for customers is likely to intensify as the entire retail sector fights for the increasingly squeezed pounds left in under pressure household budgets amid rocketing fuel bills and widespread inflation.
In a sign that shoppers are more readily looking for cheaper deals, discounter Aldi leapfrogged Morrisons this month to become the UK’s fourth largest supermarket by market share.
Data from industry monitor Kantar showed that Aldi’s sales rose by almost a fifth in the 12 weeks to 4 September compared with a year earlier, giving it a market share of 9. per cent, while Morrisons’ sales declined by 4.1 per cent, with its market share falling to 9. per cent.
Rachel Eyre, chief customer & marketing officer at Morrisons, said the move had been taken because “fuel prices are one of the biggest expenses people across the UK are facing as the cost of living increases”.
