Morrisons must get back to basics under new boss David Potts if the grocer is to win back shoppers and gain a bigger profile.

There’s so much going on at Morrisons at the minute, it really is hard to know where to start.

The new chief executive David Potts has taken the helm this week, hot on the heels of a set of annual results that included – inter alia – a collapse in profitability, a huge property impairment charge, ongoing reductions in capex, a step-up in technology deployment, the pause button being hit on convenience (including a bunch of store closures) and a pledge to further grow online.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the veg misters have gone and will reportedly soon be joined on the scrap heap by Morrisons ad stalwarts Ant & Dec.

Potts clearly has a lot of items on his to-do list. There will be ongoing investments in price, a sharpening of promotions and ranging, further development of ecommerce and the Match & More loyalty scheme, and a significant amount of progress to be made in the grocer’s marketing and communications strategy.

Thankfully, Morrisons revealed that this will be focused on everyday low prices, Market Street and the provenance provided by its food production facilities in 2015/16.

Finally, the light will be released from underneath the bushel.

It’s hard to disagree with Morrisons when it says that “not all supermarkets are the same. Morrisons is the most distinctive of the big four”.

It will be building on this distinctiveness, and communicating it effectively, that will underpin the recovery of the grocer.

Ecommerce, loyalty cards and a renewed focus on efficiencies will all help, but it will be re-engaging with lapsed shoppers and winning new customers that will represent the biggest challenge.

Boasting about its undoubted strengths through better marketing will be vital here.

The M Local fiasco, meanwhile, echoes some thoughts recently published by my colleagues at Worldpanel.

Debunking the myth that shoppers are shopping more frequently, they also pointed out that convenience isn’t actually as much of a growth channel as it’s cracked up to be: multiple c-stores merely take share from independents and – to some extent – also cannibalise sales from supermarkets.

With Morrisons taking c-store sites that most of the other multiples turned their noses up at, M Local has always had feet of clay.

There has been some nonsensensical speculation that Morrisons might well disappear.

Sure, the business has its problems and has been the runt of the big four litter recently, but there really is a cracking supermarket in there somewhere.

  • Bryan Roberts, insights director, Kantar Retail