A good sales performance over Christmas in the face of adverse weather conditions kept Morrisons supermarkets on track to deliver the biggest profits growth of the big four grocers when it reveals its full year results in March.

The Bradford-based company said it was pleased with Christmas trading after another improvement in sales.

The UK's fourth biggest chain said like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT grew by one per cent in the six weeks to January 2 – beating City forecasts of between 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent.

While sales slowed from 1.3 per cent same-store growth in the quarter to October 31, the group left its full-year profit expectations unchanged at between £860 million and £865m.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said the company had risen to the "twin challenges" of a difficult consumer environment and a prolonged spell of adverse weather and added: "This has been another good performance in a tough market. There's going to be a lot of spending cuts and consumer confidence is very fragile. It's going to be a tough year ahead."