WM MORRISON, the supermarket group, yesterday announced the sale of a further batch of nine Safeway stores, including one in East Kilbride, for GBP16.8m to rival J Sainsbury.

The Bradford-based chain acquired Safeway last year in a a titanic GBP3bn takeover battle.

It is the latest in a string of disposals that saw Somerfield buy 115 former Safeway stores earlier this year. Last week, Morrison announced the sale of five outlets to Waitrose.

The stores are mainly in town centre locations with an average size of around 20,000 square feet. They employ a total of 1220 staff, who will all transfer to the new owner, and the deal is expected to bring 100,000 new customers to Sainsbury.

The stores are at Acocks Green in the West Midlands, Andover, Bitterne and Eastleigh in Hampshire, Hammersmith and Morden in London, Midsomer Norton near Bath, Slough in Berkshire, and East K ilbride.

If the sale is given the goahead by the regulator, the transfer will take place during the autumn with the refurbished stores to open in time for Christmas.