Morrisons has revealed sales of books across its nationwide stores soared by 7.6 per cent last year, in line with the supermarket’s like-for-like sales growth of 7.9 per cent.
Emma Bailey, book buyer at Morrisons, said the retailer delivered a “strong year-on-year performance, showing good growth.
She added that the growth in book volume sales is especially pleasing as the chain was up against sales of the hugely popular Harry Potter titles.
Bailey said Morrisons’ sales were driven by the popularity of its children’s titles, back-to-school reads, summer books and Christmas annuals.
The grocery chain was forced to switch suppliers last year following the collapse of wholesaler Entertainment UK. The company is now supplied by Reedmoor and said the move only caused a “slight disruption” in sales.
Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket chain last week announced that pre-tax profits were up 7 per cent to £655m as like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, rose by 7.9 per cent in the year to 1st February 2009.
Sir Ian Gibson, Morrisons’ non-executive chairman, commented: “This was another year of good progress for Morrisons as we continued to grow sales, profits and dividends, while also investing to generate future growth.”
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