U.K. Grocer Morrison Cuts Prices to Counter Brexit Concerns
- Cost of 1,045 items to be reduced by average of 18 percent
- Latest round in battle among U.K. supermarkets, discounters
Customers pass along the central aisle inside a Morrisons supermarket, operated by William Morrisons Supermarkets Plc, in Crawley, U.K., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc named David Potts as chief executive officer, tasking the former head of Tesco Plc's Asia unit with reviving the ailing British grocer.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergWm Morrison Supermarkets Plc is cutting the prices of 1,045 items by an average of 18 percent in a bid to squelch fears that the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union will lift shoppers’ bills.
The reductions are the latest round in a price war among Morrison and the other major U.K. supermarket chains -- Tesco Plc, J Sainsbury Plc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Asda -- which are fighting competition from discounters Lidl and Aldi. It’s at least the third major round of cuts this year by Morrison.