This spring, Bradford-based supermarket chain Morrisons dumped all its added value satellite profit centres, in a bid to reduce costs and consolidate its position in the English groceries market.
The closures ensure that there can never be any question of a revival of the pipe dreams Morrison family shareholders entertained years ago. Morrisons was one of a number of retailers across Europe that monitored the twists and turns in the relations between Edouard Leclerc and the former Leclerc retail member Jean-Pierre Leroch.
Harassed and constantly attacked bitterly by his former retail partner, Leroch established Intermarché, a retail group that owned the manufacturing capacity for 20% of its retail sales. This was successful in part due to the group’s strong roots in Britanny. The Intermarché business model was admired by many and bits of it were adopted by Swiss retailer Migros, as well as the Swiss Co-op and the Basque Eroski group.
The Morrison disposals are extensions of retail departments, such as the meat or fish counters, where higher levels of product knowledge are only retained at a price. The prospect of skilled staff moving to competitors is a bigger issue to operational management than it would ever be for strategic number crunchers. This has all the signs of a desperate attempt to throw heavy kit off a hot air balloon before it crash lands.