Mark Price, MD, Waitrose

Mark Price

Total sales excluding fuel were up by 7.0 per cent on the equivalent period at Christmas last year at Waitrose to £728 million.

Like-for-like sales increased by 2.8 per cent at the John Lewis Partnership retailer for the five weeks ending 3 January 2015.

Mark Price, Waitrose MD, said: “This strong sales performance in a tough trading environment is a tribute to all our partners who work so hard to give the high quality products and outstanding service that customers want all year round and especially at Christmas.

'As a business owned by the people who work here, we can take the long-term view and our Christmas results show the effectiveness of our strategy of investing in good value, in making our shops attractive destinations and in building our online business.'

Online sales also did extremely well compared to the same period last year.Grocery sales through Waitrose.com grew by 26.3 per cent, with wines, flowers and hampers showing a 39 per cent increase.