Morrisons

Current and future projects
William Morrisons Supermarkets has a very active new store opening programme. For example, it opened its third store in the South-east in Grays in May 2002; its King's Lynn store opened in August 2002; and its third London store opened in Enfield in September. These have been followed by openings in St Helens, Cambourne near Cambridge, Redcar, and Newcastle.

As well as these new openings, the company has completed a major extension and refurbishment programme and a large number of internal refurbishments have been carried out. Further large-scale extension and refurbishment schemes are planned to be completed by early 2003. The company is continuing its programme of store improvements and work has started in Keighley on a major extension and refurbishment, including the construction of a petrol filling station. Looking to store openings in 2004, contracts have been exchanged for sites with planning consent in Denton near Manchester, Hartlepool and Hinckley and several other sites are in the final stages of planning. With its extensive expansion programme, the company is also looking to invest further in its support facilities and negotiations are advancing for a third regional distribution centre site.

In the six months to August 2002, the group's investment in fixed tangible assets was £131m, up 35% on its expenditure in the same period in 2001, and the year-end total is forecast to exceed last year's £175m.

Essential information
Morrisons is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the UK and, at February 2002, had sales of £3.95bn. As of August 2002, it had 113 outlets, eight of below 2500 m², 84 between 2500 m² and 4000 m² and 21 of more than 4000 m².

Just above 35% of these outlets were less than five years old, almost 27% were five to 10 years old, and 38% were more than 10 years old. However, this number is changing continually as the company opens new stores and refurbishes others.

At November 2002, the number of outlets had increased to 119, 94 of which had petrol stations and 104 of which had cafes.