Worst of inflation is behind us, says Morrisons’ departing boss

The worst of price rises is over, the exiting boss of Morrisons David Potts has said, but with a warning that vegetable lines were likely to surge in price ahead of Christmas.

“We can definitively say the worst of inflation is behind us, David Potts told Sky News on Wednesday (1), as he forecast a rate of price rises between 4 per cent and 6 per cent in the run-up to Christmas.

“There’s a bit more inflation coming through on veg, some salad lines, which is partly the erratic weather action that’s been going on in recent times”, Potts said.

“But the trend is very much on the downward side of inflation… we’ve made some further price cuts this week. Next week we’re reducing our Christmas basket by £2 year-on-year”.

Potts is this month departing the former top four supermarket, after eight years at the helm. He is succeeded by Rami Baitieh, formerly of Carrefour, the French grocery giant. Under Potts’s tenure the supermarket chain acquired McColls convenience shop chain.

In Baitieh’s in tray will be growing Morrisons’ convenience store offering, Potts said.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the consumer price index measure of inflation stood at 6.7 per cent in the year up to August, down from a recent high of 11 per cent in October last year.

According to British Retail Consortium released on Tuesday (31), annual shop price inflation dropped to 5.2 per cent in October from 6.2 per cent in September, the fifth consecutive monthly decline and the lowest rate since August 2022.

The BRC reported that food inflation decelerated from 9.9 per cent in September to 8.8 per cent in October, the sixth consecutive monthly drop, taking food price growth to its lowest since July 2022. The drop was driven by a slowdown in fresh food inflation to 8.3 per cent in October, down from 9.6 per cent in the previous month and well below its peak of 17.8 per cent in April.