Morrisons (LON:MRW) reported better-than-expected sales on Wednesday, after a buoyant Christmas period.
The chain reported sales up 2.8 percent in the 10 weeks to 7 January than the same period a year earlier, not including new store openings.
Sales were even stronger in the last six weeks of that period, rising by 3.7 percent.
Specifically, strong results were propelled by sales in children’s clothing, premium food and vegetables.
Bernstein’s retail analyst, Bruno Monteyne commented: “The strong results are driven by improvements in store, much better availability from the new ordering system, and very strong growth (25%) in their new ‘Best’ premium range. Morrisons customers are no longer having to shop elsewhere for their more upmarket products.”
The British supermarket remarked that it had “become more competitive, and despite the rising cost of many commodities the price of a basket of key Christmas items was the same as the previous year”.
“More and more customers found more things they wanted to buy at competitive prices at Morrisons this Christmas,” commented chief executive David Potts.
Overall, supermarkets enjoyed a successful Christmas period, as consumers turned to food shopping as opposed to retail in light of rising inflation.
According to Kantar’s World Panel Survey, UK shoppers spent £1 billion more in supermarkets across the final 12 weeks of 2017, compared to the year before.
Overall supermarket sales were up 3.8 percent for the 12 weeks to December-end. In particular, sales of festive treats such as mince pies were 13.2 percent higher than in 2016, alongside a rise in alcohol sales of 5.1 percent.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) proved the best performer of the big four supermarkets in the U.K, with sales up 3.1 percent across the period.
Conversely, Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY), which is set to update the market later today, proved the worst performer.
Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) which is set to report on Thursday, is expected report an increase of sales of 3.6 percent across the holiday period.
Shares in Morrisons are currently down marginally 1.19 percent as of 11.00AM (GMT).