Morrisons today (8 November) announced commercial director Richard Hodgson will leave the UK retailer – on the day it reported another quarter of falling like-for-like sales.

Third-quarter sales came in lower than expected as the UK supermarket upped its levels of promotional activity in the face of “fragile” consumer confidence.

In the 13-weeks to 28 October, Morrisons said total sales, excluding fuel, slipped 0.4%. Like-for-like sales at stores open more than one year fell even further, dropping 2.1% excluding fuel.

“With consumer confidence still fragile and high levels of promotional activity a persistent feature of the market, the trading environment has remained challenging through the period and sales were lower than anticipated,” the company said.

Nevertheless, management insisted the group has made “good progress” on its strategic initiatives, such as the roll out of its fresh format, the relaunch of its own brand offering and the implementation of a new IT infrastructure.

Shares in Morrisons were down at 0.78% at 265.4p at 10:33 GMT.

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