food&drink

[funshine]

Is it true that Morrison's have been taken over by Waitrose?

[Buenchico]

Has someone been telling porkies? Morrison are only just completing their takeover of Safeway. (The refurbishment of the former Safeway stores has taken much longer than originally planned). Their business situation and customer base would never interest the John Lewis group (who own Waitrose). So, unless I've missed an important announcement in the business pages of the press (and also failed to notice the low-flying pigs overhead), I can confidently say that this is absolute rubbish!

Chris

[chazza]

I live in NI and over here Safeway/Morrisons has just been taken over by Asda!

[Buenchico]

Just a minor correction to Chazza's post:
When Morrison discovered the full costs involved in converting some of the former Safeway stores, a decision was taken to sell some of their stores to other supermarkets. Asda have purchased some of the buildings but this is not the same as a company takeover.

Chris

[tinac]

Waitrose also bought a number of ex-Safeway stores at the start of the takeover as part of the agreement for morrisons to buy Safeway.

[sandbach99]

In Sandbach we had a Safeway store, when Morrisons took Safeway they had to sell the store, something to do with competition, too many Morrisons in the area!, The store was bought by Waitrose and I believe there may have a few more stores as well.

[rja211077]

indeed, the monopolies and mergers commission allowed the takeover of safeway by morrisons on condition that some stores were sold to other operators for competition reasons.

[rja211077]

...and they've sold some voluntarily because they're not interested in the small, urban supermarkets, preferring to concentrate on the big, suburban ones.

[chazza]

Buenchico - They have sold all their stores - safeway and morrisons no longer exist here

[Buenchico]

I suspect that the reason Morrison got rid of their stores (together with the ones they acquired from Safeway) in NI came about because they re-examined the efficiency of their distribution network. If they didn't have a large enough distribution depot in NI, it will have been
more economical for them to sell off the stores rather than have to completely revamp their delivery infrastructure.

Chris

[MarkyP05]

Morrisons took over safeway and had to sell off a number of the stores to other supermarkets under some kind of clause due to the retail act or something. but bloody hell have they spent a lot of money in converting! some of which went to me....wahooo!

[MarkyP05]

actually 'rja211077' ur right it was the monolopies and mergers commission that stipulated that morrisions should sell off an agreed number of stores to other supermarkets if the takeover was to be allowed.