A MAJOR supermarket chain will be closing several stores within weeks.
Morrisons is going to pull the shutters down on three supermarkets this year.
1
The supermarket giant will close its branches in Faversham and Bolton Breighmet.
It will also close its supermarket on Blackpool Road in Preston.
The Faversham store is set to close on September 17, though this isn’t set in stone.
There are no set dates for the other two, though all will be shut by the Autumn.
The news follows a whole host of supermarkets that are pulling the plug on some of their shops across the UK.
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: “Following a thorough review of our Faversham and Bolton Breightmetstore’s operation, unfortunately we do not believe performance is sustainable and we are therefore announcing today that we have made the difficult decision to sell the stores.”
The Morrisons on Blackpool Road is being sold to Tesco.
It comes soon after Morrisons recently began stocking items from its budget Savers range across its 500 convenience stores including toilet rolls, washing up liquid, sausages and skimmed milk.
Most read in Money
The supermarket is also slashing the price of several essential items in its Daily stores from today, including reducing four pints of whole and semi-skimmed milk from £1.65 to £1.55 and two pints of milk from £1.35 to £1.30.
A six-pack of salad tomatoes will also fall from £1.20 to £1, while from July 17 a medium loaf of white/wholemeal bread will fall from £1 to 85p.
Morrisons said it is initially rolling out 10 items from its budget Savers range to the smaller local shops today, but plans to increase that to 40 in the coming weeks.
What other supermarkets are closing?
Morrisons isn’t the only supermarket giant to be pulling the plug on some of its stores.
Co-op has already shut the doors to almost half a dozen stores this year, but more closures are on the way.
The supermarket closed its branch in Castle House, Sheffield, last week, with nearby stores in Broad Lane and Glossop Road remaining open.
Meanwhile, the chain’s branch in Mildenhall Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is pulling down its shutters for good on August 19.
A spokesperson for the Co-op previously told The Sun it “regularly reviews all of its sites and decisions regarding any store are only taken after careful consideration”.
The chain closed its branch in Princess Drive, Grantham, in January while its store in Linthorpe Village, Middlesbrough closed the same month.
Meanwhile, its shop in Lodge Lane, Bridgnorth, closed in January and its branch in Folkestone Central Train station shut for renovation.
Iceland will also be closing another three supermarkets between August and September.
The frozen food specialist has already shut more than half a dozen shops since February.
Right now, there are around 800 Iceland branches across the UK.
Iceland’s Cowden High Street store in Fife will bring down the shutters for good on Saturday, August 12.
It will then close its Llanelli store on Saturday, September 2.
The chain’s supermarket in the Market Shopping Centre in Crewe will then close for the last time on Saturday, September 16.
