John Lewis Christmas sales sizzle

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Department store chain John Lewis has posted double digit sales growth for the festive period.

Its like-for-like sales - which strip out new stores - rose 10.8% in the five weeks to 6 January, after three record weeks when sales exceeded £90m.

Sales at its Waitrose supermarkets gained 5.6% over the same period, also on a same store basis.

John Lewis' strong results follow after similarly upbeat figures last week from rival House of Fraser.

Marks & Spencer's is another retailer that is expected to unveil good Christmas figures later this week, as is supermarket group Sainsbury's.

Yet other firms yet to report their Christmas trading figures have already warned that festive trading was likely to be tough, most notably HMV and Woolworths.

Success

"These results reflect an all round successful performance, with great product and value, underpinned by continued progress in service, the supply chain and delivery operations, with significant improvements in availability," said John Lewis managing director Charlie Mayfield.

"We have had three successive record weeks with sales exceeding £90m for the first time," he added.

"In our peak week we took £94m which was over 10% on the 2005 record of £85m."

He added a strong performance at the group's online arm had also boosted "excellent" trading at its High Street stores - led by electrical and beauty and cosmetics sales.