MORRISONS TO ACQUIRE 16 NETTO STORES FROM ASDA

News Release

Wednesday 12 January

MORRISONS TO ACQUIRE 16 NETTO STORES FROM ASDA

Morrisons has entered into a conditional agreement with Asda to acquire 120,000 sq.ft. of additional selling space through the purchase of 16 former Netto UK stores at a cost of £28.1m*.

These stores will fit very well into our portfolio of 437 existing stores. The additional selling space is incremental to the 500,000 sq.ft target already outlined for 2011/12.

Obtaining the stores is conditional upon the successful completion of Asda's acquisition of Netto UK with final approval by the Office of Fair Trading.

The handover of the stores is expected to take place on a phased basis commencing in March, with completion of the conversion to the Morrisons format expected to take three months.

Dalton Philips, Chief Executive of Morrisons, said:

"These additional stores are an important next step in Morrisons' growth. We are building on our strategy to bring Morrisons' unique offer of freshly prepared, affordable food to more people in Britain."

We look forward to welcoming the new colleagues employed at the Netto stores as they transfer to Morrisons under TUPE regulations.

-Ends-

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc

Media Relations

Financial media

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

General media

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc

Notes to Editors:

* The 16 stores are located:

East of England/Midlands - Telford, Rugby, Tamworth, West Bromwich, Oldbury and Boston (Lincolnshire)

North West/Wales - Newton-le-Willows (Cheshire), Breightmet (Bolton) and AccringtonNorth East - Castletown (Sunderland), Bedlington (Newcastle) and Shildon (County Durham)

Yorkshire and Humber - Castleford, Ravensthorpe (Dewsbury), Armthorpe (Doncaster) and Bransholme (Hull)

About Morrisons

We are the UK's fourth largest food retailer with 437 stores and our business is mainly food and grocery - the weekly shop. Uniquely we source and process most of the fresh food that we sell though our own manufacturing facilities, giving us close control over provenance and quality. We only sell 100% British fresh beef, lamb, pork and poultry and we have more people preparing more food in store than any other retailer including butchers, bakers and fishmongers. Every week, 11 million customers pass through our doors and more than 130,000 colleagues across the business work hard each day to deliver great service to them. With competitive prices and hundreds of special offers, we are proud to save our customers money every day.