Morrisons has partnered with Lakeland to launch a new online venture which will see the kitchenware retailer sell its products through Morrisons’ website.
Morrisons is the only one of the “big four” supermarkets to not sell food over the internet, a major factor in its poor Christmas performance.
However, Morrisons said the partnership with Lakeland was part of its strategy of “expanding its non-food business online to allow its supermarkets to remain focused on fresh food”.
Morrisons’ chief executive, Dalton Philips said he believed the future for non-food retailing lies online rather than instore, and the group had decided to team up with Lakeland “because it has spent 50 years selling reliable kitchenware for cooks of all standards”.
The deal will see Lakeland sell its kitchenware alongside Morrisons’ existing range of “everyday essentials” – before it eventually hands over responsibility to the supermarket.
Sam Rayner, managing director of Lakeland, said: “This is a unique opportunity for us to work closely with one of the UK’s leading grocers and we see a lot of opportunity in the links between our respective products and services.”
Lakeland’s marketing director, Tony Preedy, said there were no plans to sell the firm’s products through Morrisons’ chain of stores adding that its own website, which will be retained, was trading “very successfully”. He said Lakeland plans to expand into the German online market later this year “and we expect further European growth to follow thereafter”.