Morrisons boosted like-for-like sales by over 8% during the Christmas period and was helped by commitment to value and “price-crunching deals”, it said this morning.
In the six weeks to 4 January sales not including new stores rose 8.2% compared with last year, Morrisons said, aided by the strong availability of stock.
The company cited competitive positioning and an emphasis on fresh food for continuing the success it witnessed towards the end of 2008.
Chief executive Marc Bolland said: “I am pleased with Morrisons excellent Christmas trading, having attracted 2.2 million extra customers with great fresh foods and industry leading value.”
Morrisons said once the November VAT cut is taken into account like-for-like sales growth was 9.2%.
The supermarket added that it is waiting for approvals for its purchase of 38 Co-operative Group stores to go ahead and expects this to happen early in the next financial year.
Despite the difficult economic environment, Morrisons said it will retain the emphasis on value and try to continue “positive momentum”.
Analysts this week predicted that the grocery retailer would post growth of about 8-9%. Sainsbury’s lags behind with festive growth of 4.5%.
Morrisons has also revealed it intends to employ an extra 5,000 members of staff this year as part of its promotion plans.
