Morrisons is on track to del­iver its vision of being the "food specialist for everyone", according to chief executive Marc Bolland.

Reporting the retailer's third-quarter results, Bolland admitted he remained cautious about the outlook for consumer spending, but said Morrisons continued to make good progress.

Like-for-like sales were up 3.7%, excluding fuel, in the 14 weeks to 4 November. Total sales for the period were up 4.6%. Sales had gone up as a result of increased footfall, especially in Scotland and the south of England. Morrisons attributed the increase to its programme of store and range development, price-cutting activity and new advertising campaign.

Fifty stores would have the new branding and a revamped Market Street format by next month and the chain was on track to complete the rollout to its 368-store estate by the end of July 2008, it said.

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