• Research »
• CIO 100
  • White Papers
  • Tech Tool Kits
  • Analysis

• Home
• Company name
• Rank
• Industry
• Infrastructure
• Slideshow
• Archive

19. Wm Morrison Supermarkets

• Quarter: Q4 2009
• Screens: 9,500
• Employees: 124,530
• Head of IT: Gary Barr, IT Director
• Industry: Retail
• Website: www.morrisons.co.uk

The firm that started in a Bradford market in the 1920s now claims to be the UK's fourth-largest supermarket chain, boasting over 400 UK stores. Employing 124,000 and with nine million customers every week, Morrisons is now well established as a challenger to the big three behemoths of Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, having been boosted by the acquisition of Safeway in 2004.

Morrisons continues to grow with revenues up five per cent to £7.5bn for its last financial half-year and profit up sharply to £449m before tax in a period when 22 stores opened. The numbers are an endorsement of Morrison's highly vertically-integrated supply chain.

In 2008, Morrisons began rolling out a suite of Oracle ERP tools under a massive internal change programme dubbed Project Evolve. In January 2009, Morrisons said Wipro would help it implement changes. The firm has also used infra-red technology to detect customer movement and hence reduce queues at tills and recently refreshed its IP network in a deal with Cable and Wireless.

However, CEO Mark Bolland has said that while the firm is moving from bespoke to packaged solutions, it does not plan to adopt "leading-edge" technologies.

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

---

Recipient's name *

Recipient's email *

Your name *

Captcha *

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.