Strong weekly trading for department store chain, as home steals the show, with furniture sales up 36.9%.
John Lewis reported another good week of trading, with the seven days to January 23 seeing a 15.7% increase on the same period last year.

Home 'stole the show', according to the retailer, with a year-on-year increase of 26.9%. Within this, furniture saw the biggest increase at 36.9%. Electricals and home technology also performed well, with sales of white goods up 15.2%.

John Lewis director of selling operations, region b, David Barford attributed the uplift in weekly trading to "the snow finally melting away and customers' pent-up demand to get back shopping".

He added: "This gave us a buoyant start to the week, which carried on through the week as the milder conditions stayed with us... It was a week of the old and the new on a merchandise front as the clearance package continued to see a healthy sell-through rate and new season's stock also found favour, with customers keen to snap up the latest trend."

The best day of the week was Sunday, January 17, when sales were up 41.1% on last year. Online shopping was also encouraging with johnlewis.com up 39.9% compared with 2008.