WAITROSE and Partners has announced its Christmas trading results which show that sales were down.

The John Lewis Partnership gross sales from November 2019 to January 2020 were down 1.8 per cent versus last year to £2,167 million.

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Gross sales for Waitrose & Partners were down by £1,033m down (1.3 per cent) last year due to shop closures.

They went up 0.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Bracknell is home to Waitrose HQ which holds its distribution centre, customer services and marketing for the whole of the UK.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We saw a good sales performance in Waitrose & Partners, despite a weak grocery market, with like-for-like sales up 0.4 per cent.

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"In Waitrose & Partners we saw encouraging progress against our milestones to accelerate growth online next year, with a 23.4 per cent increase in orders and an increase in basket sizes in the seven days to Christmas.

"At the full year, we expect profits in Waitrose & Partners to be broadly in line with last year."