Morrisons proudly revealed today that the bunting at Downing Street’s party for the Royal Wedding had come from one of its stores.
The chain actually ran out of the stuff on the morning of the big day, having sold what it said was enough to stretch from London to Stoke (about 135 miles, give or take).
And Morrisons was today entitled to hang out the metaphorical bunting once again after beating City expectations with its first-quarter results.
With like-for-likes up 2.5% over the same period last year, there was certainly cause good cheer (if perhaps not a fully-fledged street party), considering how tough most are finding it to improve over the previous term’s numbers.
Most eye-catching in today’s announcement was Morrisons’ claim that the Thursdays before each four-day weekend were right up there with 23 December in terms of ringing tills. That either speaks volumes about how patriotic the Great British public is – or how much we were in need of a party to shake off the austerity blues (or both).
The supermarket also timed its Biggest Ever Price Crunch to perfection.
“In January and February people were worried about their budgets and wanted to save,” said Dalton Philips today. “Over the past few weeks people wanted to get out and party and we got our offer spot-on.”
When Justin King said the Royal Wedding wasn’t much of an opportunity for retailers, plenty of people took his words with a pinch of salt. It looked like a classic exercise in expectation management.
And Philips did the same today, with Morrisons saying that it was “cautious” about the rest of the year ahead. But if the retailer keeps showing off its impeccable sense of timing, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be breaking out the bunting again after what will hopefully be a long, hot summer.
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