Morrisons Targeting 1.5m of extra selling space by 2013

Source : www.supermarket.co.uk

Morrisons has revealed it is pressing ahead with plans to expand its store portfolio into all areas of the UK.

The supermarket chain’s initial aim was to add an extra one million square feet of selling space in the three years to January 2013. However, it has now revised its target to 1.5 million sq ft of extra retail space.

A spokesman for the company said: "As the fourth- largest grocery retailer in the UK, we see significant opportunities to expand our store estate further. However, there are still many parts of the country where we are under-represented."

"We estimate that there are some seven million households in the UK not located within a convenient 15- minute drive from a Morrisons store – a higher target customer base than any of our three larger competitors."

"A key part of our strategy, therefore, is to grow the number of Morrisons stores ."

The company boosted its store estate last year with acquisition of 34 smaller stores from the Co-operative Group, which have performed well so far.

The spokesman said that the early performance of the stores "has confirmed that our offer works well in a wide range of store sizes", giving the retailer "increased flexibility" when searching for more potential sites.