MORRISONS has opened the first of its converted Safeways stores following the company's successful £3bn takeover.

Former Safeway shoppers at Ripon, North Yorkshire, and Southport, Lancashire, have seen their stores rebranded as Morrisons as part of a three-year process to overhaul the former company's 427-strong estate.

Morrisons, based in Bradford, plans to convert three stores a week, with the refit of 50 large stores expected to be completed by November. Outlets at Chester and Bramley, West Yorkshire, should be finished by the end of this month.

Chairman Sir Ken Morrison, who stunned the retail world when he first bid for Safeway in January last year, re-opened the first store in Ripon.

He said: "The opening of the first converted stores on schedule is the first step in delivering the promises we made to shareholders and other stakeholders when the takeover was completed."

The deal, which was sealed last month, gave Morrisons a greater presence in southern England and increased the pressure on Sainsbury's in the battle to be the UK's third-largest supermarket chain.

Among other changes, Morrisons has standardised the 12 pricing structures previously used around the country by Safeway.

The store conversion programme should be completed by early 2007, with 150 large outlets due to be finished by the end of next year.

The takeover brought the curtain down on four decades of shopping at Safeway, which opened its first supermarket in Bedford in 1962.