Wm Morrison, Britain’s fourth-biggest supermarket chain, today emerged as one of the clear winners of the credit crunch after reporting a near 19 per cent rise in profits during the first six months of the year.

Morrisons said that it had won half a million customers from its rivals in the past year with the strongest gains in Scotland and the South East of England.

Pre-tax profits rose from £249 million in the first half of last year to £295 million in the six months to August 3. Like-for-like sales, which exclude revenue from new stores opened during the period, soared by 7.6 per cent with like-for-like sales on the petrol forecourt up 31.6 per cent.

Marc Bolland, chief executive of Morrisons, said: “To have grown like-for-like sales by 7.6 per cent in this economic climate is clear testament to the strength of Morrisons’ recovery.

“More shoppers are choosing Morrisons because of our price-crunching deals and our unrivalled fresh offer in store.”

Shareholders will benefit from the performance with the interim dividend up 18.5p per cent at 0.8p per share.

Morrisons is the first major supermarket to report results for the summer. Mr Bolland said there was no reason why Morrisons could not maintain its recovery, but warned that food price inflation was likely to continue in 2009.

He said that, while oil and wheat prices had fallen by 15 per cent and 39 per cent from their respective highs, further reductions would be needed for price cuts to feed through to the supermarket shelf.

Mr Bolland added that he expected that the second half of the group's financial year would be "highly competitive". Shares in the group fell 6.29 per cent, or 17p, to 253.5p.

Farmers warned earlier today that the dismal summer weather and subsequent poor wheat harvest could push grain prices up once more.

Morrisons’ fortunes have been transformed over the past year by focusing on new products while running its biggest advertising campaign featuring celebrities, such as Denise van Outen and Richard Hammond.

Mr Bolland claimed the campaign was vital in convincing customers to take a new look at the group’s stores following the problems encountered after its takeover of Safeway in 2004.

The integration of the business took far longer than Morrisons hoped and it lost thousands of customers from the former Safeway stores.

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