Morrisons expects to grow regardless of Brexit deal

UK supermarket group Morrisons posted its best quarterly sales performance in nine years on Thursday and said it would grow whether or not Britain secures a European Union exit deal.

In its second quarter, group underlying sales at Morrisons rose by 6.3 per cent, an 11th straight quarter of growth, boosted by Britain’s record-breaking summer heatwave, the soccer World Cup and the royal wedding.

The grocer is unique among its major competitors in making half of all the own-brand and fresh food it sells. It says two-thirds of what it sells is British and it is British farming’s biggest single supermarket customer.

Morrisons is, however, taking precautions for Brexit and has been approved as an authorised economic operator which will help it avoid border delays in the event of a hard exit from the European Union.

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"It means that we are considered by the [European] authorities to be a company who has policies and procedures that are thorough and wholly trusted and therefore any hold ups at customs are to some extent simplified," chief executive David Potts, a former Tesco executive, said.

“It also avoids some fairly complex tariff refunds.” – Reuters