Morrisons has recorded a 45 per cent rise in half-year pre-tax profits and a further improvement in like-for-like sales.
The supermarket made an income of £449 million in the six months to August 2, saying it had added more than one million new customers a week over the last two years.
Profits were up 22 per cent to £359m on an underlying basis. Like-for-like sales, excluding the effect of VAT and fuel, rose 7.8 per cent, against 7.7 per cent last year. Total turnover rose five per cent to £7.5 billion.
Chief executive Marc Bolland said: “This has been an excellent first-half performance from Morrisons, continuing our run of market-beating sales growth.”
But the chain is anticipating a slowdown in growth as food price inflation eases over the second half. “With inflation easing off, we see the market’s growth going down,” said Bolland. “As inflation comes out of the market, growth will be a smaller single digit number.”
But Bolland said he expected Morrisons’ emphasis on fresh produce, with its Market Street format, to protect it somewhat from a slowdown.
