The choice of Ripon as the first Safeway to be converted to Morrisons was puzzling, according to analysis carried out by CACI.
The analysis reveals that the store in North Yorkshire has a very poor fit to the typical demographic profile of the Morrisons’ customer. The Ripon store’s predicted catchment contains far larger numbers of Wealthy Executives and Affluent Greys than the average Morrisons store. According to CACI the ACORN Groups of Struggling Families, Secure Families and Blue Collar Roots make up over 50% of the customer base of Morrisons and of these only Secure Families have a high level of representation.
The other store converted on the same day as Ripon was Southport, which has a slightly better demographic fit but again is a far from perfect match to Morrisons. In this case the Blue Collar Roots and Struggling Families are highly under-represented again, although Secure Families are found in abundance.
The second batch of conversions opened on April 30 at Chester and Bramley, West Yorkshire. These two stores represent a demographic profile much more familiar to that of the Morrisons’ heartland.
The Bramley store has an excellent fit, with large numbers of all of Morrisons’ key ACORN Groups. Chester is slightly under-represented by Blue Collar families and has slightly larger numbers of the more affluent ACORN Groups, but generally looks to have a good fit to the estate.
In all four towns Morrisons is being forced to dispose of its old store. In the case of Southport this has already taken place, with the store being sold to Waitrose which has a fairly good demographic fit to the catchment.
After this conversion CACI anticipates that Morrisons will hold a 12% share of the catchment’s supermarket grocery sales, with Waitrose picking up 6%. This leaves both retailers some way behind Tesco’s strong predicted performance in the area.
In Ripon and Bramley it looks like the Competition Commission has been wise to force Morrisons to dispose of a store as, in both cases, it would command at least 50% of the catchment’s supermarket expenditure if it continued to trade from the old Morrisons stores as well.
In Chester, Morrisons is likely to command only a 19% share of the local grocery market after it has disposed of the old site. This is because the old Morrisons store is located on the other side of the city and in the shadow of a number of strongly competing stores from all of its main competitors, none of whom is allowed to purchase the site for competitive reasons.
The analysis reveals that the store in North Yorkshire has a very poor fit to the typical demographic profile of the Morrisons’ customer. The Ripon store’s predicted catchment contains far larger numbers of Wealthy Executives and Affluent Greys than the average Morrisons store. According to CACI the ACORN Groups of Struggling Families, Secure Families and Blue Collar Roots make up over 50% of the customer base of Morrisons and of these only Secure Families have a high level of representation.
The other store converted on the same day as Ripon was Southport, which has a slightly better demographic fit but again is a far from perfect match to Morrisons. In this case the Blue Collar Roots and Struggling Families are highly under-represented again, although Secure Families are found in abundance.
The second batch of conversions opened on April 30 at Chester and Bramley, West Yorkshire. These two stores represent a demographic profile much more familiar to that of the Morrisons’ heartland.
The Bramley store has an excellent fit, with large numbers of all of Morrisons’ key ACORN Groups. Chester is slightly under-represented by Blue Collar families and has slightly larger numbers of the more affluent ACORN Groups, but generally looks to have a good fit to the estate.
In all four towns Morrisons is being forced to dispose of its old store. In the case of Southport this has already taken place, with the store being sold to Waitrose which has a fairly good demographic fit to the catchment.
After this conversion CACI anticipates that Morrisons will hold a 12% share of the catchment’s supermarket grocery sales, with Waitrose picking up 6%. This leaves both retailers some way behind Tesco’s strong predicted performance in the area.
In Ripon and Bramley it looks like the Competition Commission has been wise to force Morrisons to dispose of a store as, in both cases, it would command at least 50% of the catchment’s supermarket expenditure if it continued to trade from the old Morrisons stores as well.
In Chester, Morrisons is likely to command only a 19% share of the local grocery market after it has disposed of the old site. This is because the old Morrisons store is located on the other side of the city and in the shadow of a number of strongly competing stores from all of its main competitors, none of whom is allowed to purchase the site for competitive reasons.
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