Morrisons has revealed a strong post-Christmas trading update as sales over the festive period were boosted by growth in the supermarket's wholesale arm.

Despite the growth in the wholesale arm thanks to tie-ups with McColl's and Amazon, even Morrisons saw a slowdown in retail shopping.

Of the like-for-like sales increase of 3.6% in the nine weeks to January 6, only 0.6% was from retail.

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This marks a slowdown on the 2.1% growth seen in the comparable period last year.

The rest was made up by a 3% contribution from the wholesale division, which last year was just 0.7%.

The supermarket's boss, David Potts, said: 'This is Morrisons' fourth consecutive Christmas of like-for-like sales growth during the turnaround. Our performance shows colleagues are listening hard and responding to customers, providing consistently great value and good quality when it matters most.'

The news comes amid reports that consumers spent an additional £450m on groceries compared with this time last year.

Two thirds of households shopped at either Aldi or Lidl over the Christmas period, giving the challengers a highest-ever combined market share for the season of 12.8%.

Asda came out top among the 'big four' supermarkets, as strong online growth of 12% helped push its overall sales up by 0.7.