Morrisons claims 'good' Christmas

10th Jan 2011 07:01

Supermarket chain Wm Morrison has kept its forecasts for the full-year unchanged after growing like for like sales excluding petrol and VAT by a better than expected 1% in the six weeks to January 2.In his first Christmas as chief executive, Dalton Philips reported total sales excluding fuel and VAt rose 3.1%, or 4.7% including fuel, while like for like sales were up 4% when fuel is included. In November, the company reported a 1.3% increase in like for like sales for the 13 weeks to October 31. "This has been another good performance in a tough market," Philips said. "I'm very pleased with the way the whole business has risen to the twin challenges of a difficult consumer environment and a prolonged spell of adverse weather."Expectations for the year ending 31 January "remain unchanged", and the company thinks it is "well positioned to make progress" despite challenging economic conditions in 2011 due to the recent VAT increase and public service spending cuts.