Eighth consecutive weekly decline for the department store chain as director Nat Wakely blames economic uncertainty and ‘grim weather’ for difficult trading conditions.
The company's weekly sales report revealed a decline of 9.7% for John Lewis, dropping to a figure of £57.78m.

Home was the worst affected with a 14.8% drop sales, followed by electricals and home technology, which fell 8.5%.

Of the retail chain's stores, Peterborough and Cribbs Causeway shopping centre in Bristol saw the worst performance with respective declines of 23.8% and 21.4%.

John Lewis' Bluewater department store experienced a 12.9% drop in sales, however, the company already has plans to invest £20m in a revamp of the flagship store, which will include the addition of a foodhall.

Director, retail operations at John Lewis, Nat Wakely said: "The combination of economic uncertainty and grim weather at the end of the week made trading that much more difficult.

"The economic climate continues to be difficult, but we hope last week's interest rate cut, together with the news of our own investments in the future in both Bluewater and Dublin...we will continue to outperform a difficult market."

She added: "Certainly, our progress on our customer service and availability measures should give us confidence that we are well set for the Christmas peak."