Supermarket chain Morrisons has reported a
2.9% rise in like-for-like sales for the nine
weeks to 1 January - its best performance for
seven years.
The retailer said fresh food, beers, wines and
spirits, and its Nutmeg clothing range had all
performed well.
Morrisons added it now expected annual
underlying profits of £330m-£340m, beating
analysts' consensus of £326m.
Early reports suggest 2016 was good for food
sellers. Most leading supermarkets will give
updates this week.
On Monday, discount food retailer Aldi reported
record sales , and Marks and Spencer, Tesco and
Sainsbury's are also due to give updates this
week on their Christmas trading.
Earlier on Tuesday, a survey by the British Retail
Consortium said food sales had spearheaded a
"bumper Christmas" for retailers.
Majestic Wine was another retailer that had a
good Christmas. It reported its best-ever
Christmas trading figures, with like-for-like sales
up 7.5% in the 10 weeks to 2 January.
'Quite chipper'
Morrisons has been in the throes of a
reorganisation for the past 18 months, led by
chief executive David Potts, who took over the
running of the business from Dalton Phillips in
February 2015.
Changes have included pulling out of running
smaller convenience stores under the M name, as
well as a focus on cutting prices.
Alongside this, Morrisons has added new products
to its premium range - sold under the "Best"
label - which it said had proved "very popular".
Source: Digital Look
- 10th Jan 2017
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets
LSE
246.4p
Current price
3.79%
Percentage change
9.0p
Price change
Price (p)
The company said it had improved service
standards at the checkouts, including reducing
queuing times by opening more tills.
Mr Potts said customers had been feeling "quite
chipper" over Christmas and that the retailer had
"found its form".
He said: "This Christmas we made further
improvements to the customer shopping trip.
"We stocked more of what our customers wanted
to buy, more tills were open more often, and
product availability improved as over half of sales
went through our new ordering system."
Investors liked what Morrisons was serving up,
too.
In early trading, the shares led the list of top
gainers on the FTSE, rising more than 4%.
Inflation returns
Latest figures from industry analysts Kantar
Worldpanel showed Morrisons had a 10.9% share
of the UK's grocery market in the 12 weeks to 1
January. Tesco continues to dominate the sector
with a share of 28.2%.
Morrisons introduced price cuts on a number of
its products late last year, but Kantar said
inflation had returned to the sector for the first
time in 28 months.
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