Bradford-based Morrisons has described as “business as usual” reported negotiations with suppliers to gain more support for sales promotions.

The company, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, is said to be seeking help from suppliers to combat increasing competition in the grocery market, of which Morrisons has a more than 11 per cent share.

Morrisons will start negotiating with suppliers in the next few weeks in order to get agreements in place for next year.

The move is said to result from a slowdown in rising food prices which have boosted supermarket earn-ings over most of the past 12 months..

Promotional activity at rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s all received supplier support, whereas Morrisons had self-funded promotional items because about 20 per cent of its products came from its own supply chain.