Morrisons targets hundreds of corner shops in southern swoop
Morrisons is preparing to convert hundreds of corner shops across southern England into its own branded convenience stores as the grocer races to boost shopper numbers.
The supermarket chain, based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is planning to open 250 new Morrisons Daily convenience stores next year by offering corner shop owners the chance to convert their stores into Morrisons franchises. The expansion will focus on areas where it is under-represented – including cities in the south and the Midlands.
It would mark a major step-up of its expansion efforts, with Morrisons on track to open around 160 of its convenience stores this year. Recent shop openings include sites in Shoreditch, east London, Southend-on Sea in Essex and Paignton in Devon.
Morrisons has around 1,700 convenience stores, of which 700 are run by franchisees. It bought the other 1,000 stores from McColl’s in 2022 and has rebranded them as Morrisons Daily sites.
The 250 new planned locations – which are the equivalent of opening 10 full-size supermarkets – are expected to be new franchise stores. The supermarket is speaking to corner shop owners about “converting” their existing stores into Morrisons Daily shops.
‘Key part of growth strategy’
It will allow the supermarket to expand into new parts of the country without having to spend heavily on store fit-outs. A spokesman said convenience stores were a “key part of Morrisons growth strategy”.
It comes as the British grocer races to win around more shoppers, with Rami Baitieh, Morrisons’ chief executive, having pledged to return the company to “peak form”.
Internally, the convenience store strategy has been championed by Mr Baitieh, who adopted a similar strategy at French supermarket Carrefour.
The latest push follows concerns that the supermarket has been losing ground to rivals.
In its most recent financial year, Morrisons sales fell by £1bn to £17bn. This marked the supermarket’s lowest annual revenues since its private equity takeover in 2021.
Its market share has tumbled to 8.3pc from 10pc since its takeover by buyout group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, according to figures from Worldpanel.
The decline means that German discounter Lidl is now poised to overtake Morrisons as Britain’s fifth largest supermarket within the next few months. Lidl currently holds a 8.2pc share of the UK grocery market.
Morrisons was the UK’s fourth largest supermarket before dropping behind Aldi in 2022.
However, sources suggested that this was partly down to Morrisons’ recent focus on convenience stores.
The Worldpanel figures fail to take into account a significant chunk of convenience store sales, as they track grocery products which people take home rather than items they buy to eat on the move such as drinks and snacks.
By opening more convenience stores, bosses are understood to believe that an increasing portion of its sales are not included in the Worldpanel figures.
A spokesman for Morrisons said: “We’re excited about the opportunity to expand further in this large and fragmented market.
“Over the last few years we’ve built a significant business of over 1,700 stores and we have ambitious plans in place to bring Morrisons Daily to more customers across the UK with a franchise model that enables us to add new stores faster, in a capital light way.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/27/morrisons-targets-hundreds-of-corner-shops-southern-swoop/