Morrisons sales continue to slide as Ocado tie-up talks progress The Bradford-based group reported a 1.8pc slide in sales at stores open for more than a year in the first quarter, excluding fuel. That compared with analysts' expectations of a 2pc drop, but was an improvement on the previous quarter's decline of 4.1pc. "This performance reflects a steady improvement from the previous quarter and is in line with our expectations," the retailer said. Morrisons, the smallest of Britain's four main supermarket chains, has been losing market share to discount food retailers such as Lidl and Aldi, but hopes to claw back trade through expanding its convenience store presence and catching up with rivals' online offerings. The retailer doubled its target for convenience store openings from 50 to 100 this year after snapping up 49 former Blockbuster shops while the film-rental chain was under administration.