Morrisons has reported a jump in sales for the crucial Christmas and New Year period, helped by a surge in online activity and a cap on prices despite rising commodity prices.
The supermarket on Tuesday said that same store sales, excluding fuel, rose 2.8 per cent in the ten weeks to 7 January. Including fuel, sales were up 3 per cent.
“More and more customers found more things they wanted to buy at competitive prices at Morrisons this Christmas,” said chief executive David Potts.
“The hard work and friendliness of our colleagues continues to be key in delivering our strengthening performance,” he added.
Morrisons said that automated ordering was live across all stores during the period, which helped improve availability and stock levels. It said that despite commodity prices rising, the cost of a basket of typical Christmas items was unchanged from last year.
Online sales rose by 10 per cent as the retailer expanded the number of stores where customers could pick up good ordered on the internet. It also said that wholesale growth was strong, helped by supplying some tobacco products to the retailer’s new partner, McColl’s, earlier than initially planned.
Morrisons had previously announced that it would start supplying all McColl’s stores with Safeway products and national brands. That process will start this month.
Retail trading updates for the Christmas period have so far been mixed.
John Lewis last week revealed record-breaking sales during the week running up to Christmas, and Poundland and Next also reported upbeat figures, but Debenhams said that profits for the full year would likely be lower than previously expected as a result of a lacklustre performance.
Separately on Tuesday, figures compiled by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG showed that non-food sales had slumped across the UK in December.
Analysts said that rising inflation and stagnant wage growth had squeezed shoppers and forced them to spend a greater proportion of their budgets on essential food items.
