Birthday present for 75-year-old partnership
John Lewis Partnership celebrated its 75th anniversary with a 6 per cent sales increase to£5.3 billion for the year ended January 29.

The department store group's profit before tax was up almost a quarter to£216 million and like-for-like sales rose 3 per cent.

Sales at JLP-owned grocer Waitrose were up 10 per cent to£3 billion compared with the previous year, and profits were also up 10 per cent to£193 million.

Meanwhile, sales at John Lewis department stores increased by 3 per cent like for like and 1 per cent in total to£2.4 billion. Profits for the department store chain were up 8 per cent to£212 million.

John Lewis Partnership chairman Sir Stuart Hampson said: 'Our positive relationships with suppliers continued to provide quality innovation and value in our product ranges and the higher increase in profits reflects gross margin improvement, good cost control and productivity gains in both divisions.'

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