HUNDREDS of supermarket staff are celebrating a bumper pay packet.

Employees at Morrisons in Blackburn will receive the equivalent of two extra weeks pay thanks to the chain's record-breaking sales and profits.

In total 22,000 employees will share a £9.9million profit share pot -- ten per cent higher than last year -- and staff have been making plans for their cash payout for months.

Julie Wilcock and Jackie Pope are both splashing out on foreign holidays.

Deli manager Julie, of Agate Street, Roe Lee, is getting married in July and her bonus is paying for a honeymoon in Gran Canaria.

She said: "I've never flown before because I'm scared of heights but we wanted to go abroad for our honeymoon."

Personnel officer Jackie, who will be Julie's bridesmaid, is taking her three-year-old daughter Paige on holiday to Majorca.

She said: "The personnel office helps run the bonus scheme and we get a lot of questions for weeks beforehand. It's a good incentive."

Butcher Susan Ward, of Shear Brow, Blackburn, is spending her money on bills, but she wasn't always so sensible. She joined the Blackburn store just a few months after it opened 11 years ago and she spent her first bonus on the best romantic gift of all -- a wedding ring for her husband Chris. Big-hearted Kelly Wilson, 20, is also giving her bonus away -- she's treating her family to a meal out to celebrate her mum's 40th birthday near her home at Clifton Street, Darwen.

Sherry Shields, of Marsh Terrace, Darwen, manages the store's oven fresh produce department and is doing her house up a piece at a time with her annual bonuses.

She said: "I've already spent mine -- I've ordered a leather suite. I like to do something big with the money each year. Last year I had a new bathroom and the year before that a new kitchen."

Marguerite Lake is also likes to buy things for her home at Arncliffe Avenue, Accrington, with the extra cash. This year's money will buy a new bedroom carpet, while previous years' bonuses have gone on a new television and a fridge freezer.

Tayiyiba Mulla, 20, has worked in the firm's administration department since she left college two years ago and is planning to save some of the money and pay off student loans with the rest. But her colleague Riaz Waka, 23, of Saunders Road, Blackburn, is being more adventurous -- he's investing in dot com shares and is hoping to make a killing on the internet.

Assistant fresh food manager Sheraz Ashraf, 21, doesn't want to invest -- he wants to have a good time with his cash and plans to spend it on clothes and nights out clubbing in Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Preston.

But a bonus definitely looks like a good thing to Riaz's neighbour, baker Mark Bentley, of Saunders Road, Blackburn. He's already spent his bonus on two new pairs of glasses.

Staff at the firm's Nelson store will qualify for bonuses next year but chairman Sir Kenneth Morrison has hit out at the removal of tax relief on profit-related pay, which will affect payments.

He said the firm was currently looking at other ways to reward employees as well as the profit share scheme to compensate for the loss of tax relief.

To qualify for this year's profit share payment, staff must have worked a full financial year and still be employed by the group.

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