One of the biggest problems facing Morrisons' new boss David Potts as he attempts to turn around Britain's fourth largest supermarket was highlighted at its annual shareholder meeting -- not enough stock on store shelves.
Morrisons has suffered three years of profit decline. Like rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, it is battling record food price deflation and waging a price war to stem the loss of shoppers to discounters Aldi and Lidl.
But some of its problems have been self inflicted.
Chairman Andrew Higginson told reporters after Thursday's AGM that Morrisons' poor product availability was one of the most frustrating issues management faced.
"Aldi, Lidl and Tesco aren't affecting our availability, we are. So that's something we can do something about," he said.
Potts, who succeeded Dalton Philips, sacked in January after failing to revive Morrisons fortunes over a five-year watch, told the meeting that customers were telling him: "You may have something on special offer but if I can't buy it, it's not that special."
"Availability will improve but it takes some quite painstaking effort," he said.
Several small investors, some of them Morrisons employees, took to the floor at the meeting to complain about the firm's chronic product availability.
"I go to stores every day and I walk round and I see empty shelves," said small shareholder and Morrisons transport worker Stuart White.
"Is that because warehouses can't pick in time or because transport can't deliver on time ... If it's sitting in a warehouse you can't buy it."
Morrisons investor and store night shift worker Keith Clegg complained of constant frustration regarding deliveries. "I'm ordering the product and they don't turn up," he said.
Others bemoaned that Morrisons' store deliveries from warehouses were hamstrung by excessive paperwork.
"Wagons are going out late, they aren't going out at all, (or) they're not going out full because there simply isn't the time to fill the wagon," said private shareholder Jane Murdoch.
Investors would need to be patient, said Potts.
"To achieve this turnaround none of it is going to be a quick or easy fix," he said. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article