MORRISONS stores in Worcestershire have been spared from closure.

Last week the supermarket announced plans to close 11 stores around the UK, placing the jobs of about 900 employees at risk.

There are five Morrisons stores in Worcestershire, including one in Droitwich and a supermarket in Malvern — none of which have been earmarked for closure.

Morrisons have confirmed that they will be closing stores in Somerset, Sunderland, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire,

County Durham, London, Wigan and Oldbury and West Bromwich in the West Midlands.

The news comes after it was revealed the store will sell 140 M local convenience stores for around £25 million, to retail entrepreneur Mike Greene, in order to concentrate on its larger supermarkets.

It is expected the move will see all 2,300 staff kept, and even ten more convenience stores opening.

Pre-tax profits for the half-year to August 2 fell 47 percent to £126 million, while like-for-like sales for the period dropped 2.7 percent compared with the same period last year.

New chief executive David Potts said the group faced a "long journey" to turn around its fortunes.

"With great regret we are proposing to close 11 supermarkets. This is a difficult decision but one which we cannot see any way through to make those stores viable.

"This will be a long and challenging journey but an important one for one of Britain's great retailers."

Morrisons said it had opened just one new store this year and did not plan to open any more in the remainder of 2015/16 while it expected the sales contribution from net new stores to be negative.