A stellar performance over Christmas has helped Morrisons improve its corporate reputation more than any other major retailer in the UK, research shows.

It leapt 56 places to 17th in TNS Media Intelligence's latest monthly Presswatch Ranking Retail Sector Report, which uses national press comments to rank the corporate reputation of 77 retailers.

Morrisons' reputation grew by 515 points over the six months to the end of January according to the scoring system, which takes account of news about commercial performance, company management and social responsibility.

In January, Morrisons achieved the best score of any retailer in terms of performance thanks to 9.5% like-for-like sales over Christmas. It was second only to HMV Group in terms of company management. However, Morrisons' social responsibility score was the worst of all retailers.

John Lewis had the best corporate reputation of all UK retailers, followed by its sister company Waitrose.

Waitrose's Christmas trading figures - like-for-like sales were up 4.1% - boosted its score, as did praise for its social responsibility.

Tesco, however, slumped to 74th place following criticism of its development strategy and alleged heavy-handed tactics.

Sainsbury's and Asda showed the third and fourth-biggest improvements in reputation, but they still ranked only 69th and 72nd on the overall league table.

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