Britain's fourth biggest supermarket group, William Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) saw its shares rise today as it reported a sixth consecutive quarter of underlying sales growth, as its turnaround continues under chief executive David Potts.
In a trading update for the 13 weeks to April 30, the FTSE 100-listed group said sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, rose by 3.4% in the period.
That beat both the average market forecast for growth of 1.8% in its first-quarter, and the 2.5% increase seen in the previous quarter.
READ: Morrisons reports first profit growth in five years
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It added that total sales, excluding fuel were up 2.8% - or 5.8% including fuel - after the impact of last year's store closure
The Bradford-based company said it performed well throughout the quarter, especially during the key events of Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter.
In the statement, Morrison’s boss, Potts said: “Our new financial year has started well”.
He added: “We are confident we will continue to turnaround and grow Morrisons. Our expectations and guidance for 2017/18 are unchanged, including year-end net debt of less than £1bn."
In early morning trading, Morrison’s shares took on 1.5%, or 3.5p at 242.5p.
In a note to clients, Clive Black, analyst at ‘house’ broker Shore Capital said: “Continued self-improvement from store refreshments and ongoing category reviews (Fix), continued sharpening of the value proposition (the supermarket put through another phase of price cuts through its Crunch programme only this week) plus careful broadening of activities (Rebuild & Grow), leads us to be all the more confident in our FY2018 financial forecasts with scope, perhaps, down the line to positively review estimates again.”
Sector trends cautious
The strong sales performance from Morrison’s comes a day after the UK’s second biggest grocery player, J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) saw its shares drop sharply after sales at its core supermarkets business disappointed, although its acquisition of high street catalogue stores group Argos boosted overall full-year sales by over 12%.
READ: Sainsbury's weak as supermarkets sales continue to decline
Last month, grocery market leader Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) raised margin worries with its annual results.
Tesco shares slumped on April 12 despite the firm building on its recent revival with a forecast-beating set of results, which saw underlying profits rise by 30% to £1.28bn.
READ: Tesco slumps despite better-than-expected results
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