Morrisons is helping its Daily franchisees become more competitive with rival supermarkets, following the completion of a major pricing review across nearly 2,000 products.

Several Morrisons Daily franchisees confirmed to Better Retailing they had received both verbal and written communication about the review completed earlier this month. Conducted in partnership with research firm Assosia, Morrisons reviewed the prices of 1,896 products against the same or similar lines in Tesco Express, Sainsbury’s Local and Co-op stores. The review was conducted across all major product categories both in stores and online.

Better Retailing understands the price files based on the review will be made available to franchisees next month, with prices varying depending on whether a retailer is a traditional convenience store or a forecourt.

One source, who asked not to be named, described the move as a “game changer.” They told Better Retailing: “It will make it much easier and more efficient to change the pricing on products. Currently it’s taking a lot of time to manually analyse and change the products on shelf.

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“Some of the prices on goods were a bit high previously, which is understandable as a lot of Daily sites at the start were forecourts. You could get away with charging a bit extra at these sites. However, with customers getting more value-conscious, it’s important Morrisons stores can match what their rivals are doing.

“It’s promising that Morrisons has listened to franchisee feedback and is helping them remain competitive with the major multiple convenience chains.”

One franchisee welcomed the move, adding the Co-op had been providing stores with the biggest competition regarding pricing. They added Morrisons had also recently appointed someone with a key role of examining pricing across stores with rivals.

Assosia had previously been commissioned by suppliers to check promotional compliance across a number of Morrisons stores.

Morrisons has been approached by Better Retailing for comment

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