Nov 22, 2016
Morrisons to revive Safeway brand
Wm Morrison, the UK grocer, is reviving the Safeway brand, more than a decade after it bought the supermarket group of the same name for more than £3bn. Morrisons, Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group by sales, said on Tuesday that it was "Developing a range of hundreds of convenience products" that would be Safeway-branded and sold by independent retailers from next year. The revival of the Safeway brand is part of Morrisons' broader strategy to return to the convenience sector that includes trialling a new chain of convenience stores, initially at 10 petrol stations across the UK in the next two months. The move comes barely a year after Morrisons sold its lossmaking M Local chain to Greybull Capital for £25m. Morrisons said that the relaunch of the Safeway brand would enable it to use its supply chain and own food manufacturing operations to offer wholesale products to independent retailers. The group bought Safeway for £3.35bn in March 2004, in an acquisition that nearly doubled the size of the chain and elevated Morrisons from a regional operator to one of Britain's biggest grocers. Most Safeway stores were sold off or rebranded as Morrisons after the acquisition, virtually ending the brand in the UK. David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, said: "These are two capital-light ways of growing in the convenience food market. By working with well-established partners and reviving the Safeway brand, we are making our products more accessible to more customers."
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