Supermarket giant Morrisons reports £792m loss

Supermarket Morrisons has slumped to a loss of £792m after it wrote down the value of its store estate in the face of tough market conditions.

The struggling chain also highlighted another year of falling sales as underlying profits – excluding the £1.3bn one-off property hit – fell 52% to £345 million in the year to February 1.

It announced that it will close 23 under-performing M Local stores during the current financial year, having recently disclosed plans to shut 10 smaller supermarket this year.

The results come days before new chief executive David Potts, who has more than 40 years retailing experience at Tesco, takes his post.

Mr Potts replaces former boss Dalton Philips, who was ousted a year after the announcement of a three-year £1bn programme to cut prices to fight the supermarket price war. Mr Phillips had led the retailer since 2010.

Chairman Andrew Higginson said: “Last year’s trading environment was tough and we don’t expect any change this year. However, Morrisons is a strong, distinctive business.”