Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket with 10% market share, has reported that pre-tax profits are up 40% to £200m for the first six months of the year.

Like-for-like sales were up 2.6% in the quarter which is the seventh consecutive quarter of sales growth. Turnover increased by 4.8% to £8.4bn. Net debt reduced by a further £262m to £932m. The grocery chain has stabilised over the past two years and is focusing on luring shoppers back into its stores by lowering prices and improving its food offering.

Morrisons is the first major supermarket to commit to sell only British fresh meat throughout the year, and also no longer sells imported fresh lamb during winter and early spring. This is part of its wider strategy to sell more food that is both British and locally sourced.

Morrisons said that it had crunched the price on more than 2,000 products during the half year. It said that prices had risen in some categories, such as butter and cream.