Morrisions reveal which Milton Keynes supermarkets feature on its closure list

The supermarket giant plans to axe cafes and deli counters in its larger stores and shut some smaller stores completely, leaving around 360 people at risk of redundancy.

Among the affected stores is Westcroft in MK, where Market Kitchen is to close.

This provides ready-cooked meals for customers to take away, but the scheme has been deemed “uneconomic” by Morrisions bosses.

Rami Baitiéh, Morrisons chief executive, said: “The changes we are announcing are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.”

He added: “Although these changes are relatively small in the context of the overall scale of the Morrisons business, we do not take lightly the disruption and uncertainty they will cause to some of our colleagues. We will of course take particular care to look after all of them well through the coming changes.”

The good news is that Morrisons has reported rising sales in the three months to January. Sales were 2.4% up over the quarter to January 26, hitting £4bn.

However, in a tougher development, the company revealed that it has set itself a cost-savings target of £1 billion rather than £700m.

It is hoped some of the staff affected by closures will be reabsorbed into other roles.

Morrisons, according to a YouGov poll, ranks as the eighth most popular supermarket in the UK, below Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and M&S food.

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