John Lewis celebrates a bumper week

Published on Wednesday 27 December 2006 12:15

RETAIL giant John Lewis is celebrating after notching up a bumper week of sales in the run-up to Christmas.

The firm shattered its own trading record in the seven-day Christmas countdown.

Sales hit 94.3 million, beating the same week in 2005 by 16.3 per cent.

Gareth Thomas, retail operations director at John Lewis, said: "Last week was a big surprise to everybody.

"We never normally take record sales in the week before Christmas.

"It shows how last-minute some shoppers had left their Christmas shopping.

"We had record sales of cosmetics, perfume and women's lingerie.

"These tend to be bought by men as they don't require too much imagination."

However experts believe fewer were shopping this year because of factors like internet retailing, supermarkets "muscling in" on non-food products and rising domestic fuel bills.