page_title: Morrisons
section_title: Acquisition of Safeway
hierarchical_section_title: Morrisons / History / Acquisition of Safeway
caption_attribution_description: English: Morrisons Supermarket. Part of the Westcroft Shopping Area, was originally a Safeway store.
context_page_description: Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, trading as Morrisons, is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, and is headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
  Founded in 1899 by William Morrison, hence the abbreviation Wm Morrison, it began as an egg and butter stall in Rawson Market, Bradford, England. Until 2004, Morrisons store locations were primarily focused in the North of England, but with the takeover of Safeway in that year, the company's presence increased significantly in the South of England, Wales and Scotland. As of 2016 the company had 498 superstores across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar.
  As of April 2019, Morrisons employed 110,000 employees, and served around 11 million customers each week.
  Morrisons' market share in August 2017 was 10.14%, down 0.86% from 2015—behind Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda but ahead of Aldi.
  The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies.
context_section_description: In March 2004 Morrisons acquired Safeway, a British supermarket chain which owned 479 stores, allowing Morrisons to have a larger presence in southern England. The company was purchased for £3.3 billion, comprising 1 new Morrisons share (enabling Safeway shareholders to have a 40% stake in the enlarged group and reducing the Morrison family's shareholding to 18%), plus 60 pence in cash (paid for by the divestment of 52 overlapping stores) for each Safeway share held. The acquisition quickly ran into difficulties caused in part by Safeway UK's outgoing management changing that chain's accounting systems six weeks before the transaction was completed. The result was a series of profit warnings being issued by Morrisons, poor financial results and a reversion to manual systems.
  The programme of store conversions from Safeway to Morrisons was the largest of its kind in British retail history, focusing initially on the retained stores which were freehold, over 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m²) with separate car parks. Within a few weeks, Safeway carrier bags were replaced by those of Morrisons and Morrisons own-brand products began to appear in Safeway stores.
  Originally 52 shops were to be compulsorily divested after the takeover. Two closed for other reasons, John Lewis Partnership purchased 19 to be part of its Waitrose chain, while J Sainsbury plc purchased a further 14, and Tesco bought 10 in October 2004. At the time Morrisons chose not to move into the convenience store sector (although it has since done so with its M Local stores). Further to this policy decision, it was announced in late 2004 that the 114 smaller 'Safeway Compact' stores would be sold off to rival supermarket chain Somerfield in a two-part deal worth £260.2 million in total.
  In Northern Ireland Morrisons sold the Safeway stores, and a store in Bangor that opened after the Morrisons takeover, to Asda.
  One of the largest single purchases in 2005 was that of five stores by Waitrose. On 18 July 2006, a further six stores from the 'Rump' format were sold to Waitrose, including the former Safeway store in Hexham, Northumberland, which became England's most northerly Waitrose branch.
  In May 2005, Morrisons announced the closure of Safeway's joint venture convenience store/petrol station format with BP. Under the deal, the premises had been split 50/50 between the two companies.
  Morrisons also sold Safeway's Channel Islands stores, in Guernsey and Jersey, to CI Traders where the stores continued to trade as Safeway, although the products they sold carried the brand names of chains such as Iceland. In 2011, Sandpiper CI/CI Traders sold the Channel Island Safeway stores to Waitrose and the Safeway brand disappeared from the Channel Islands. On the Isle of Man, the Douglas store was sold to Shoprite and the Ramsey store was sold to The Co-operative Food. The Gibraltar store was originally marketed for sale, but was converted under the 'Rump' format. In November 2006, plans were submitted for the extension and redevelopment of the store to introduce the full Morrisons format.
  In September 2005 the company announced the closure of former Safeway depots in Kent, Bristol and Warrington with the loss of 2,500 jobs. The Kent depot has since been sold to upmarket rival Waitrose, whilst Warrington was sold to frozen food rival Iceland. Part of the Bristol depot has been sold off to Gist.
  The store conversion process was completed on 24 November 2005 when the final Safeway fascia disappeared from the UK.
caption: Morrisons supermarket in Milton Keynes (formerly a Safeway store)
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