MORRISONS CUTS 4,912 JOBS AS DEBT RISES TO £7.52BN

Morrisons shed nearly 5,000 positions in the year to October 2025 as the Bradford-based supermarket group sought to strengthen its finances, according to accounts filed at Companies House. The retailer's average monthly workforce fell from 101,144 people to 96,232, a reduction of 4,912 workers. The UK's sixth-largest grocer is undertaking a major turnaround programme under chief executive Rami Baitieh following losses of market share to rivals Aldi and Lidl.

The job cuts included more than 4,200 shop-floor positions alongside further reductions across food manufacturing and distribution operations. A Morrisons spokesman attributed the workforce reductions primarily to the closure of a newspaper home delivery service, restructuring of the retail people team and downsizing of the Rathbones bakery business, stating there was no additional redundancy programme in stores. Despite these cost-cutting measures, the private equity-owned group's net debt increased to £7.52 billion for the year from £7.07 billion previously. Revenues rose 2.8 per cent to £15.7 billion, though the company reported a pre-tax loss of £629 million before exceptional items, partly owing to a cyber incident that caused an IT systems outage before Christmas 2024.

The retailer said underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation remained at £835 million despite cost pressures from the previous autumn budget. Morrisons is owned by United States private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. The group's spokesman said the company grew like-for-like sales each quarter and maintained market share despite external challenges.