Morrisons to close Bradford city centre store

The store on Westgate employs 90 people. Its closure is one of seven signalled yesterday as the company revealed improved Christmas trading.

“Regrettably we cannot see any improvement in the viability of the Westgate store and are proposing its closure,” said a Morrisons spokesman.

“Many people will know that we have considered closing the store before and have instead decided to carry on trading which is in part down to the hard work of our colleagues.

“Despite their dedication we have not seen the response from customers needed to secure the store’s future. This is not the outcome we wanted but we have to make difficult decisions to give the overall business the best chance of success.”

The location of the other six stores has not been disclosed yet, but are not in Yorkshire. All seven stores are below 15,000 sq ft.

Morrisons has already shut 21 unprofitable stores and sold its 140-strong M Local convenience estate.

CEO David Potts said: “This is the end of the programme of store closures. We are drawing a line under that phase of recovery.”

The news came as Morrisons reported a surprise rise in sales over the festive period, ending three years of decline.

In his first Christmas in charge, Mr Potts said like-for-like sales rose 0.5 per cent in the six weeks to January 3, much better than last year’s 3.1 per cent decline.