Belinda Youngs to leave as Morrisons creates own-label unit to take on discounters

Morrisons has created a new own-brand unit in a bid to compete better with the discounters.

The unit will be led by trading director Andy Atkinson, reporting into group trading director Casper Meijer. It will bring together own-brand sourcing, packaging design and product development.

Current corporate brand and marketing director Belinda Youngs is expected to leave as part of the overhaul but Morrisons said she would stay until later this year to oversee the marketing of Morrisons’ value positioning and loyalty proposition. “Optimising our sourcing and reducing our range are the next steps to enable us to achieve our goal of offering our customers, £ for £, the best value for money,” said Meijer.

Last month CEO Dalton Philips announced a category-by-category own-label review “to develop a hierarchy better suited to customer expectations,” as part of a three-year turnaround strategy.

The central plank of this strategy, a £1bn investment in price, sparked speculation of an imminent price war. However, shoppers report little difference so far.

“It’s supposed to be the most ruthless slashing of prices ever seen but I haven’t noticed anything,” said one of many similar posts on moneysavingexpert.com, while posters on Morrisons’ staff forum claimed customers were asking them in-store where all the deals were.

In an exclusive interview with The Grocer, Asda CEO Andy Clarke also poured cold water on “price war hype”.