Bradford-based supermarket group Morrisons wooed around four million new customers from bigger rivals over the Christmas period.

And in a festive bonanza, it boosted seasonal like for like sales by 9.5 per cent compared with the previous year.

Most of the growth was in the south of England where shoppers changed from other supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsburys, attracted by Morrisons new advertising campaign featuring TV presenter and actress Denise Van Outen, singer Lulu and soccer pundit Alan Hansen.

And a series of price reductions on fresh food and groceries also helped boost sales.

If fuel sales are included then festive trading grew by 11.6 per cent on a like for like basis with total sales up by 13.6 per cent in the six weeks to January 6.

Sales of fresh food from its in-store Market Street outlets rose by about ten per cent.

Morrisons, Britain's fourth largest supermarket group, operates 375 stores around the UK. It says a new staff discount scheme contributed around 1.5 per cent to the non-fuel sales growth.

Its update comes after the UK's biggest grocer, Tesco, disappointed the market last week with sales figures, although Sainsbury's posted a solid festive performance.

Marc Bolland, Morrisons' chief executive, said: "I am delighted with our Christmas performance. We welcomed significantly more customers to our stores and these strong results are evidence that our rigorous focus on freshness, service and value is striking a chord with shoppers."

Mr Bolland is cautious about consumer spending and expected the market to remain competitive.

He was confident, however, that Morrisons' focus on offering value, together with its integrated structure that offered flexibility of supply and pricing would enable it to respond to changes in consumer spending, and would serve the company well if there was an economic downturn.

He said that more shoppers were buying healthier fresh food but were also seeking value for money. Morrisons had benefited from this by seeing a rise in the value of individual shoppers' baskets.

The company is confident that its profits for the full year would be at the top end of the £520m-£570m range.

Morrisons' three-year optimisation plan, involving the refurbishment, re-siting and re-branding of stores, a new IT system and new distribution systems was on target but work had been suspended to minimise disruption over the Christmas period. Around £30m of costs associated with the plan were being deferred into the next financial year.

Said Mr Bolland: "These results confirm steady progress in the delivery of our three year optimisation plan, although we are still at a relatively early stage with much to do throughout the business. We believe we are well on track to deliver our vision of being the food specialist for everyone."

e-mail: chris.holland @bradford.newsquest.co.uk