Morrisons boss Rami Baitiéh has warned his workers that the supermarket requires an urgent overhaul to survive.
The CEO told staff that businesses were like “burning candles” which would burn out unless they changed, The Sunday Times reported.
The comments were made during early briefings to workers at the company’s head office.
Back in 2021, private equity giant Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) paid £7bn to acquire Morrisons, with the deal finalised before the steep hike in interest rates.
The deal has left the supermarket owing £400m of annual interest payments on £6.6bn of debt.
Executives at the struggling retailer are believed to have reiterated internally that its profits from last year were not enough to plug Morrisons’ interest bill.
Baitiéh, who joined the business from Carrefour last month, is determined to overhaul Morrisons’ performance by improving its customer service, said The Sunday Times.
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The news comes as sales at the business increased 3.7% during the 12 weeks to the end of November, making them significantly lower than the wider industry.
Insiders have claimed the executive hopes to return the supermarket to higher volumes in order to invest in reducing prices.
Improving Morrisons’ in-store availability is also thought to be a key focus.
Despite the Morrisons cashflow improving, with its underlying profits predicted to reach between £950m and £1bn this year, industry sources have questioned the grocer’s ability to kick-start growth without implementing price reductions.
CD&R hopes to implement a capital injection into the supermarket through a deal where Motor Fuel Group obtains the retailer’s 340 petrol forecourts, although discussions have continued longer than expected.
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So randomly changing up the logo a couple of years ago hasn’t miraculously fixed everything? Riiight. Shame that.
YES ha ha ha, it is like when Debenhams tried that… And all the Arcadia brands… And BHS… And so on and so on. Nobody has ever said “oh new logo and signage… I will now shop there”
This should read ‘vulture capitalists devour another successful British business’. After buying the business for 7bn – 6.6bn of that figure is now saddled with the company! A previously profitable operation now endebted and ready for the family heirlooms to be sold off. The shareholders will gleefully continue to feed on the dividends while the workers are threatened with their very survival…
Spot on! Sir Ken will be spinning in his grave…
Vulture capitalists indeed check your pension funds are OK
Anyone who regularly reads comments left here about Morrisons may recall that I have been saying this for several years. The whole ethos of Morrisons from the top down needs a massive change. They treat customers, staff, and landlords as if they are there to be abused. I very much look forward to their failure.
Thing is only 1 share holder now – CD&R as a staff member we all had to sell our shares back to the company…..
Amazing how one bloke can manipulate a share price, load up on shares, make millions in the process, and not a word said. Meanwhile, the rest of us suffer.
There is something seriously wrong with morrisons. It is one week before xmas and they have no xmas dinner food for sale. Last year you had parsnips in a foil tray, red cabbage in a tray, brusells srouts with bacon or chestunuts & some butter. You had roast potatoes in goose fat. None of that is on the shelves this year. There are only plain frozen turkeys. No freh turkeys for sale today 17th december. They have the dried stuff from last year on resale. The only savoury things they have produced especially to sell are bread sauce, turkey gravy and some stuffing balls.
They are seeling plain gammon joints and plain joints of red meat. The problem is that they sell plain beef all year round. So its as if they just want us to eat the same as we eat the rest of the year.
To offer nothing but the year round food at xmas is to have totally given up . Something very bad is happening to this company & I hope they will be ok because we all love Morrisons so much.
It’s all on sale now, if you used your eyes, there is advertising around with “Available from” dates around the store.
Most if not all the items you mentioned were sent out to stores last night so should be available from today onwards
I have been saying Morrisons needed an overhaul for years, way before the take over, back in the Dalton days it should have been done.
100 percent agree bet ken Morrison turning in his grave bless him
hmmm the issa brothers r in a similar sticky situation aswel
The government approved this takeover despite being aware of the precarious financing. Another Debenhams in the making where the tax payer had to meet the cost of the pension scheme liability. Asda was purchased in the same way and all this debt means reduced profits so less corporation tax. It’s a lose lose for almost everyone
Clearly a financial engineering problem that cannot be solved operationally.
The burning candle analogy is at best simplistic and reminded me of Eric Cantona’s sayings.
As Per usual US companies laden the Business’s they purchase with Debt. If you can’t afford it don’t buy it.
Customer Services don’t do much anyway. I have been waiting over two months for a response to a complaint. I’ve sent a couple of emails and requested a copy of CCTV I was told that this should have been dealt with and promised it would be, the email while from CS, had no senders name on it this time. Moreover, I appear to have been blocked now as my email’s can’t be delivered to Morrisons any longer.
In addition, my local store has dirty food shelving, generally shabby and badly lit. I won’t be using them again. The new CEO has his work cut out.
Sir Ken will be spinning in his grave. Morrisons should never have been sold off shore to equity group. They will eventually sell off Morrisons property portfolio, which is Massive, then the store’s will have to rent back off another company. There will be nothing left and the firm will disappear. Disgusting. Why does this country insist on selling everything we own to foreign companies and governments? Madness.
Morrisons has for years been rightly or wrongly regarded as a “old people’s” shop and to an extent their range reflects this. It’s what makes Morrison’s what it is, it’s USP. Unfortunately this is not going to make it as profitable as its rivals. Both those things need to change. Image and range.
All morrisons stores are so short staff to do the job well.
Hence, staff are overworked over tired, which gives the image to customers of grumpy staff.
They sold many local stores which were in profit. Means I’ve to drive( costs petrol) I used too spend £100 a week including petrol, mostly now shop Trsco which I’m not enamoured with. Also the M sons app/ card change was a disaster! I was advised there were no. Adds, just apps which haven been a problem with my phone, staff were ill informed about this I threw my card away ….
Is it a surprise that Morrisons has problems. The kept fuel prices extremely high – some 10p more than Sainsburys near me. Everything is overpriced. Their more card is not worth having. You used to get points on everything one bought now it is only on selected items which they can adjust the price.
All in all the Yanks caught a cold by paying far too much and the rest of us get sneezes as a result
Morrisons was always about value, good availability and decent customer service. All the basics that they did really well. Unfortunately as all the back of house costs have been stripped back to a minimum and the company is saddled with so much debt, I can only see one way this company will go. What a shame given generations of workers who out in so much hard work and the steady leadership of the board up until the wobble after the Safeway takeover. This gave the analysts an opportunity to get rid of the board and change how the business was run. Now it’s in private hands with billions of debt. The only people that will pay the price for its failure will be the poor staff.
Morrisons were doing fine until greedy shareholders took the opportunity to make a killing. It ran well as a family business, but greed took over, and now they are loaded with debt. Ken Morrison must be turning in his grave, years of hard work down the drain!
Have never heard so many unhappy customers as I have in the last few months. Staff hours being changed for some but not a chosen few, so many leaving due to this. I appreciate the business is first and foremost but surely a work life balance would make for happier staff and in the long run happier customers.
I walk past my local Morrisons to get to Aldi. Enough said
The prices in a vast range of goods and daily staples have gone really expensive we haven’t shopped at Morrison’s for 2 years. Their petrol ⛽ kiosks have been ripping motorist off as well.
It is sad that’s company has dumped with a load Debt and it sounds like they have not been careful with their commitments, so only choice will be to asset strip and it’s everyone else’s fault except the people who borrowed the money. It’s a shame it was not tied to their own personal homes that would make them think twice
If he is serious about customer service then he needs to do away with the self checkouts which, as one of the competitors have found, are unreliable and definitely not customer friendly. Plus they would sooner give the CEOs ridiculous bonuses rather than help reduce their debt.
Morrisons spent a fortune on store makeovers. The service is still poor but the prices have risen. Nothing inventive to tempt. Smelly toilets, peasant food cafe a d uninventibe offers. No loos if they go under.
The problem with saying Morrisons needs a overhaul is great unfortunately it starts at the bottom and not at the top
Morrisons are vastly overrated.
Safeways was far superior. Sadly Safeways was swallowed up by Morrisons.
Simple answer is..EVERYTHING is more expensive than most others..Really is a rip off.Fuel always has been as well..
Never seen a company go downhill so fast, Was Morrision shopper but quality availability and store standards have deteriorated.
With nearly £1 billion in profit this year, I’m struggling to see why they can’t afford the interest.
No surprise is it that debt is king and common sense isn’t for retailers like Morrisons and ASDA! It not recipe for future profits given hikes in interest rates.
Morrisons are not being looked after properly. Needs someone to really look out for the problems as we used to. Then they will be worthwhile to decide they are the best stores
Morrisons are scum, it’s run by incompetent bullies and sociopathic liars. The only we can with Phillips, Potts, and this new CEO is an early death.
Sound like the management are blaming the workforce for its dire handling, the work force are the back bone off any company, but when you pretend that the customer is key but keep selling off assets to regain what you overpaid for a business, this American company is all about selling all its assets, make a profit which they will because Morrisons have assets such as they own the land on which they have there stores on, think about it , a small site but you can build upwards 10,20,30 floors, that’s millions of pounds worth of apartments and that’s just one site ? and they own hundreds of there stores, they will eventually sell Morrisons cheap but with huge debt.