Co-op underlying Christmas sales up 6 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - The Co-operative Group, the country's biggest mutual retailer, saw a 6 percent rise in underlying sales at its food shops in the three weeks to January 3, it said on Tuesday.

Britain's fifth-biggest food retailer, which expects to complete its 1.57 billion pound purchase of rival Somerfield in the first quarter of this year, said like-for-like sales excluding fuel were up 5.2 percent in the 13 weeks to Jan 3, the last quarter of its financial year.

"These results represent a good trading performance from our food business in an increasingly competitive market place and a difficult economic climate," Chief Executive Peter Marks said in a statement.

The Co-op, created in 2006 from the merger of The Co-operative Group and United Co-operatives, said it rebranded and refurbished 700 stores in 2008, costing 200 million pounds and delivering average year-on-year sales uplifts of 13 percent.

The group, which traces its roots back to the founding of the co-operative movement in Rochdale, northwest England in 1884, plans to refit and rebrand a further 700 stores this year.

(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by James Davey)