Bumper Christmas at John Lewis

John Lewis staff can expect record bonuses averaging over £2,200-a-head after the retailer experienced strong Christmas trading.

Based on last year’s profit split, the 70,000 staff across John Lewis and its supermarket chain Waitrose will get a bonus worth one-fifth of their salary.

The retailer also owns one third of grocery home delivery service Ocado, which has also had a good year and expects to move into profit for the first time next year. Ocado boosted sales to £10 million in the week to 23 December, up about 25% compared with the same week last year.

In spite of a slow start to the autumn amid unseasonably warm weather, in the last couple of months, shoppers bought fashion and electrical goods at the the John Lewis chain. The retailer said it had its best ever Christmas after sales topped £100 million a week for the first time in the 2 weeks prior to Christmas.

The performance is very different to other retailers on the High Street where there are concerns of widespread business collapses.

The department store is determined to outshine competitors and is heading towards its third consecutive year of record profit.

Furthermore, Boxing Day was believed to be another good day for John Lewis, as it was for the retail sector generally, with its sales up 8% compared with 12 months ago.

Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, said there’s no question, we have outperformed the underlying market.

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