Morrison, Waitrose get lift from new stores

LONDON (Reuters) - Food retailers Wm Morrison Supermarkets (MRW.L) and Waitrose JLP.UL are outperforming competitors thanks to new store openings as falling food price inflation slows sales growth for the nation's grocers, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Nielsen said sales at grocery multiples rose 4.2 percent year-on-year in the four weeks to October 31, the slowest rate since the summer of 2007.

Morrison, Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, saw sales rising 9 percent over the period, which could ease fears that its recent run of strong growth was coming to an end, while sales at upmarket rival Waitrose were up 12.3 percent.

"Waitrose and Morrisons are currently outperforming other retailers and it's no coincidence that they are the two retailers to benefit most from acquisitions this year," said Mike Watkins, senior manager retailer services at Nielsen.

Over the 12 weeks to October 31, Morrison and Waitrose saw sales growth of 8.4 percent and 11.7 percent respectively.

At the same time Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, saw growth of 5.6 percent, behind closest rival Asda (WMT.N) with 6.1 percent but ahead of industry number three J Sainsbury (SBRY.L) with 4.7 percent.

Sainsbury is due to report interim results on Wednesday and Asda its third-quarter sales on Thursday.

(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Greg Mahlich)