Morrisons has started rolling out its entry-level Savers range to 500 convenience stores across the UK after calls for supermarkets to make their cheapest products more accessible to cash-strapped shoppers.
Savers products will be available in over 500 Morrisons Daily stores, priced the same as in its supermarkets. The roll-out will start with 10 lines, including washing up liquid, toilet rolls and sausages, followed by a further 30 products in the coming weeks. The additional items will include essentials such as eggs, ham, juice, butter, cheese and mince.
Morrisons’ Chief Executive, David Potts, first revealed plans to roll out the Savers range in the convenience channel last month when being questioned by MPs about greedflation accusations, on if supermarkets were profiteering and doing enough to support consumers during the inflation crisis.
Consumer watchdog Which? has also been calling on supermarkets to improve the availability of essential budget options in their convenience stores so consumers, especially those on a low income, are not paying over the odds because they cannot get to a larger supermarket store.
Speaking today, Potts said: “Inflation is stubbornly high, and the cost of living is showing no signs of reducing. Speaking plainly, the reason that convenience stores don’t stock entry price point products is because they make very little, if any, money and do not fit with the significantly higher cost structure of convenience stores. But customers – especially those living in areas without easy access to a supermarket – have told us how much they would appreciate it at this difficult time and so we are doing it.
“Our Savers range is incredibly popular in our supermarkets and offers outstanding value and good quality. Recent research has shown that Savers is the UK’s fastest-growing value range and we are proud to be the first major UK supermarket to introduce some key products from the range into convenience stores all over the country.”
Morrisons recently relaunched its Savers range with more colourful packaging aimed at achieving better standout on-shelf. It also added 56 new lines, taking the total range to 217 products.
Morrisons also announced that it is cutting the price of 18 high-volume products in its c-stores, including both 2 and 4 pint milk, bread and tomatoes.
