JOHN Lewis sales rose 5.1 per cent over the three peaks of the Christmas period, the retailer has said.

Black Friday, Christmas and post-Christmas trading at John Lewis was boosted by online sales, which rose 21.4 per cent, offsetting a fall in store sales.

Like-for-like sales at Waitrose, which is part of the same group, fell 1.4 per cent.

John Lewis Partnership chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield said grocery is a challenging market.

However, he said: “We’re pleased with our overall results, we think they’ll be pretty much in line with the market.

“We had a strong clearance and our fashion sales were up six per cent.”

He said John Lewis’ Black Friday sales had been more heavily weighted towards online than in previous years, and its shops had not been as busy as on previous Black Fridays.

John Lewis sent out 18 per cent more parcels than a year earlier in the Black Friday sales period – peaking at five parcels a second in its busiest hour.

Sir Charlie added that shop sales in John Lewis’ post-Christmas clearance sales had risen 16 per cent.

The employee-owned firm, which runs 46 John Lewis shops, shrugged off unusually mild December weather as fashion, home and technology sales were boosted.

The mild weather adversely affected retailers including Next, which said on Monday that its trading performance in the run-up to Christmas had been disappointing.

Between October 26 and December 24, sales at Next’s High Street shops fell 0.5 per cent, but rose two per cent at the Directory arm.

The company, which has more than 500 stores, said it expects annual pre-tax profits to be about £817m.

In October it predicted profits of between £810m and £845m.

The retailer, which did not take part in some of the heavy discounting sales events at the end of last year, said in a statement: “We believe that the disappointing performance in the fourth quarter was mainly down to the unusually warm weather in November and December.”

But in the six weeks to Saturday, January 2, total sales at John Lewis Partnership were up 4.1 per cent from the same period last year to £1.8bn.

UK supermarkets have been engaged in a long-running price war, while discounters Aldi and Lidl have also been steadily taking market share from the biggest grocers.

Sir Charlie said Waitrose had seen a growth in customer numbers of about seven per cent but grocery was a tough market, which was deflationary.

“Prices are falling. The fact is, if broccoli is half price, you and I have to eat twice as much for us to make the same money,” Sir Charlie said.

Waitrose’s peak trade came particularly late this year, but the firm had record trading days on December 23 and 24, John Lewis Partnership said.

Sophie McCarthy, an analyst at Conlumino, said the John Lewis Partnership trading figures had been robust.

“The retailer’s emphasis on quality and service and its investment in online shopping continues to be favoured by consumers,” she said.

John Lewis had a surge in online trading during the period, helped by sales made through mobile devices, she said.

“Click-and-collect orders also rose, with half of online orders collected in this way,” she said.