Rami Baitieh joined as CEO in November
Q1 underlying sales up 4.6
Key customer metrics improving
Industry data shows firm losing market share

LONDON, March 27 Reuters British supermarket group Morrisons reported a seventh straight quarter of underlying sales growth and said its overall performance was improving under new CEO Rami Baitieh.

The group owned by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier Rice since 2021 said likeforlike sales excluding fuel and VAT sales tax rose 4.6 in its fiscal first quarter to Jan. 28 its strongest quarterly growth for three years.

Total revenue, excluding fuel, increased 3.9 to 3.9 billion pounds 4.92 billion.

Former Carrefour France boss Baitieh became Morrisons CEO in November.

Across the business we have identified many areas where we can raise our game and make small improvements which collectively will result in a significantly enhanced shopping experience for our customers, he said, noting better product availability and innovation and reduced waste had already been achieved.

Our key customer metrics are improving and complaints which in many ways are the canaries in the retail coalmine are down almost 60 in the last 20 weeks, he said.

However, industry data published on Tuesday showed Morrisons continuing to lose market share to rivals including industry leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury39;s, as well as discounters Aldi and Lidl.

The data from researcher Kantar showed Morrisons had a UK market share of 8.7 in the…