Sales edge up at UK supermarkets group Morrisons

LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Morrisons, Britain's fourth largest supermarket, reported a further improvement in quarterly underlying sales on Thursday, suggesting its chief executive, now over a year into the job, might have stabilised the business.

David Potts, a former Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) executive who joined Morrisons as CEO in March last year, has cut prices, improved store standards and tailored product offerings to local tastes.

The Bradford, northern England, based group which trails market leader Tesco, Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's and Asda in annual sales, said sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, rose 0.7 percent in the 13 weeks to May 1, the firm's fiscal first quarter.

That compares with analysts' forecasts of flat sales in the latest quarter and a rise of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of Morrisons' 2015-16 year which was its first quarterly rise in four years.

Morrisons said like-for-like transactions grew 3.1 percent in the quarter, while volume growth was described as "strong". Deflation, including the supermarket's own price cuts was 2.6 percent. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Greg Mahlich)