Morrisons has emerged as Britain’s best performing supermarket chain over the festive period thanks to soaring sales of its value and organic ranges.
Like-for-like sales excluding fuel rose 8.2 per cent in the six weeks to 4 January, marginally exceeding analysts’ expectations and topping the 2.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent growth reported by rivals Tesco and Sainsburys respectively.
The retailer attracted 2.2m more customers than last year as it clawed Christmas shoppers away from more expensive rivals with its focus on fresh food and range of festive price cuts and promotions.
Chief executive Marc Bolland commented: “We are the biggest beneficiary of shoppers switching from premium to value retailers . We have gained customers from all our major competitors, particularly in the South.”
He added that demand for organic products had rocketed thanks to a large number of middle-class shoppers trading down.
“Customers who usually shop at premium retailers come to our stores and they are amazed at what they see on the organic counter, at much lower prices than they are used to,” he said.
Morrisons is the UK’s fourth-biggest supermarket chain behind Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s and currently serves around 10 million shoppers a week from its 382 stores.
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