Morrisons, Britain's fourth largest supermarket group, has reported a rise in underlying sales in its latest trading period encompassing Christmas.
The supermarket group benefitted from out of home eating and drinking being restricted by strict Covid-19 regulations. The group said today that group like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose 8.1% in the 22 weeks to January 3 - a period that spans Morrisons third quarter to November 1 and the nine week Christmas trading period.
The outcome compared to analysts' average forecast of a rise of 8.3% and a second quarter increase of 12.3%. All of UK's supermarket groups benefited in the run-up to Christmas from unprecedented demand due to the pandemic.