JOHN Lewis Partnership expect its stores to continue to face difficult trading conditions in 2008, despite encouraging Christmas sales.
The partnership published a trading update for its two divisions for the five weeks to January 5 which showed sales compared with the same period last year were up 7.6% in John Lewis stores and 6.1%, excluding petrol, in Waitrose.
Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “I’m pleased with the performance of the divisions, particularly in the context of the demanding market conditions we faced during this important trading period.”
“Looking ahead, we expect the trading environment to continue to be very challenging this year.”
The comments come days after John Lewis’s strong Christmas figures, although its Liverpool store had mixed fortunes after weak trading earlier in December.
A rise of 11.7% for Christmas week sales at Liverpool boosted flagging figures, which had seen sales in Liverpool fail to meet the 2006 levels for three of the four pre-Christmas weeks.
