Morrisons is bracing itself for a fightback by its competitors following its "astonishing" performance over Christmas.

Like-for-like sales for the six weeks to 6 January were up 9.5%, excluding fuel, eclipsing the 3.1% recorded by Tesco over the same period and Sainsbury's 3.7% over 12 weeks.

But despite attracting high praise from the City for the strong showing, chief executive Marc Bolland refused to get carried away by the company's performance - and said competition was likely to intensify.

"What I have learnt from retail is that only the next day is important and I expect others will react to our success in the coming months," he said.

Bolland said the retailer's advertising campaign, featuring stars such as Lulu, Denise van Outen, Alan Hansen and Nick Hancock - had helped steal market share from its rivals, especially in the south.

"Lots of people went into a Morrisons for the first time because of the advertising and liked what they saw, but our core stores also had very healthy growth which was very promising," said Bolland. "Advertising was only part of our success. We had industry-leading availability, improved range and wastage was tightly controlled."

Sales of Market Street fresh food were up more than 10%, there was a "remarkable" 40% rise in fresh salmon sales and demand for pre-ordered turkeys was up 50%.

Bolland said well-executed promotions, including a promotion of silverside beef that lifted sales 400%, also played a key part in Morrisons' success.

Morrisons had fewer promotions this Christmas overall, but what price cuts there were were deeper, said Bolland, who increased the chain's Christmas promotional budget by 2% in 2007.

Commenting on the sale speculation surrounding Somerfield, he said Morrisons would not be taking part in any race to buy Somerfield, which was put up for sale last week.

"We will not be looking to take part in any auction for that business," he said.

"We are not interested in the whole of Somerfield. We might be interested in a few stores, but that is not what this deal is about."

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