Morrisons impressed the City with a strong like-for-like performance in its first quarter.

The grocer reported a 7 per cent rise in like-for-like sales for the 13 weeks to May 4. Chief executive Marc Bolland said the performance was “industry leading”.

He said he had not noticed consumers down-trading and, while value product turnover is increasing, top-end healthy lines are showing “double-digit” growth.

The grocer has made 2,000 price cuts on products, which Bolland said covered the “whole basket”.

Citi analyst James Anstead said Morrisons’ growth remains robust, despite the expected slight slowdown from Christmas.

He said: “The like-for-like growth is a very solid performance, especially given that Morrisons’ like-for-like figures do not enjoy the same benefit from store extensions and space maturity as some of its peers.”

Morrisons’ total sales excluding fuel were up 8.6 per cent, of which 1.6 per cent came from new space.

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