MORRISONS, which opens its new store in Kidderminster on Monday, won a third major industry title of the year after picking up the Supermarket of the Year award at the Retail Industry Awards.

The achievement, believed the be the first time a retailer has won all three awards in the same year, follows Morrisons being named Grocer of the Year at the Grocer Gold Awards in May and receiving the title, Retailer of the Year 2008, at Retail Week’s industry awards in March.

Beating off competition from its main rivals, Morrisons was praised by the judges for its outstanding business performance.

The news comes just a week after Morrisons announced like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, of 7.6 per cent for the first half of 2008 and a 4.7 per cent increase in customer numbers, with another half a million customers passing through the supermarket’s doors every week.

Morrisons’ chief executive, Marc Bolland, said: “I would like to thank the growing and growing number of around 10 million customers that we have shopping with us today for their loyalty to us and dedicate this award to all our staff that serve them so excellently.”

Morrisons was also celebrating after picking up three further awards at the ceremony in London, with the supermarket also being crowned Fresh Flower Supermarket of the Year and Fresh Produce Retailer of the Year.

There was also success for Stephen Gale, manager of Morrisons in Newquay, who was named Store Manager of the Year.

Morrisons is the UK’s fourth largest food retailer, with 376 stores.