Britons stock up on toilet rolls and painkillers ahead of Brexit

Toilet rolls and painkillers are some of the items UK citizens have started to stockpile ahead of a potential no-deal Brexit, supermarket Morrisons said on Wednesday, as it posted a rise in profit and paid its third special dividend in a year.

Chief executive David Potts said there were signs of a "small amount" of stockpiling and that Morrisons, Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, was well prepared whatever happened in the Brexit process.

“In the event of things getting sticky at the ports, we’d look for alternative routes into the country,” he added, saying the company had obtained Authorised Economic Operator status, which should speed-up border checks in the event of hold-ups.

‘Cupboard fillers’

Mr Potts also said the firm had brought forward some purchases of goods and packaging materials to support its manufacturing division, and stockpiled popular “cupboard fillers”.

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Morrisons reported a 9 per cent rise in underlying pretax profit to £406 million (€474 million) for the year to February 3rd. That compared with analysts’ average forecast of £407 million (€475 million) and profits of £374 million (€437 million) in 2017-18.

The company said total revenue rose 2.7 per cent to £17.7 billion (€20.7 billion), with like-for-like sales up 4.8 per cent, though growth did slow in its fourth quarter.

– Reuters