Morrisons' CEO Potts ties up petrol station convenience deal with Terry Leahy

The group, which last month sold off most of its convenience stores for a cut-price £25m, will begin the trial by the end of the year whereby it will supply branded and own-brand food to the forecourt stores, which are part of MFG's 373-station portfolio.

MFG, which owns and operates petrol forecourt shops trading under the BP, JET, Shell and Texaco brands, has ex Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy on the board, who knows Morrisons' chief executive David Potts and chairman Andrew Higginson from their mutual time together at Tesco.

“As we said at our recent interim results, we want to consider new opportunities to serve customers better in the convenience market where the capital commitment is low and the Morrisons resourcing is light-touch," Potts said.

"This pilot in Motor Fuel Group filling stations will allow us to trial one opportunity in this growing channel.”

House broker Shore Capital said the deal "will not move the dial" for the supermarket group's financial results, where like-for-like (LFL) sales have been eroded badly in recent years, but will "watch with interest" to see how the trial goes.

"We see this announcement as both welcome and better thinking from Morrisons towards this channel given what was the abject failure of 'M-Local' first time around for reasons that have been well versed elsewhere," said analyst Clive Black, who wondered whether there could be other partners from a store branding and supply base in time.

He added: "Whilst only a toe in the water, and we should reiterate that this is just a trial, we like the thinking here, with five outlets of at least 1200 sq ft in size expected to be operating under the Morrisons' banner by the year-end."