Wholesale buoys Morrisons festive figures

Like-for-like sales in the nine weeks to January 6 were 3.6 per cent higher for Morrisons, which has its headquarters in Bradford and stores across the West Midlands and Shropshire.

This comprised a 0.6 per cent contribution from retail, marking a slowdown on the 2.1 per cent growth seen in the comparable period last year.

But this was offset by a three per cent contribution from the wholesale division, which includes tie-ups with McColl's and Amazon. Last year this was just 0.7 per cent.

The number of items per basket rose by 0.8 per cent, versus a 4.4 per cent drop in the comparable period last year.

However the number of transactions fell by 0.9 per cent, reversing the upward trend of last year which saw a 2.3 per cent rise.

Despite the increase in sales, Morrisons shares were the biggest fallers in early trading on the FTSE 100 yesterday, down nearly four per cent at one stage.

The supermarket's boss, David Potts, praised staff as customer satisfaction ratings improved, particularly in the colleague friendliness and checkout experience categories.

"This is Morrisons' fourth consecutive Christmas of like-for-like sales growth during the turnaround. Our performance shows colleagues are listening hard and responding to customers, providing consistently great value and good quality when it matters most," he said.

Thank

"I would once again like to thank the whole Morrisons team for what they continue to do for our customers.

"Morrisons is well set to keep improving the shopping trip and become more and more relevant for more customers."

The chain also said its 2018-2019 year-end expectations were unchanged.

Mr Potts said that consumer behaviour had changed with people habing become increasingly savvy and conscious of both the macro-political situation in the country and how that may unfold in 2019 and how it may affect them personally.

While customer spending increased during the summer, while England were progressing through the World Cup, customers later became more cautious.l

That has continued in the first few trading days of this year.

Morrisons, which has nearly 500 UK stores, has joined peers this week in slashing prices on several items as retailers compete with discounters Aldi and Lidl.

On Monday, shops cut the prices of 935 products by an average of 20 per cent in a bid to attract budget-conscious post-Christmas shoppers.

Meanwhile, Tesco has launched a range of deals to celebrate its centenary year, slashing prices on household staples.