Morrisons has reported its worst results in eight years, with pre-tax profits falling by more than half from a year earlier.

The struggling Big Four retailer reported a pre-tax profit of £345 million, down 52 per cent.

Like-for-like sales for the year were down 5.9 per cent.

The announcement comes ahead of new chief executive David Potts starting his role at the business on Monday (16 March).

Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson told BBC News: 'This has been a controlled and a planned reset of the business - it is painful, but it is the start of a new growth period we hope.

Th retailer has also revealed that the rollout of its M stores would be 'slowed significantly', and that it would close 23 M local stores during the year, resulting in the loss of 380 jobs. It also said it would review its 'site selection criteria' going forward.