Sales at John Lewis were up 0.6% year on year in the week to April 10.
Director of selling operations David Barford is very happy with the company's Easter performance: "A cracking Easter! Looking at our performance this week on a like-for-like basis we achieved a 10% increase on last year and over the two-week Easter period we saw a great 18% uplift. All in all a really good two weeks' trading."

He continued: "On a straightforward comparison to last year we were up 0.6%, losing Sunday due to the fall of the calendar, coupled with lovely weather at the tail end of the week plus a number of key sporting events."

Sales in home saw a 0.7% gain, with particularly strong results in cooking and dining, up 5%, and furniture, up 4%. Lots of interest was shown in garden furniture and barbecues, said Mr Barford.

White goods also performed well, with sales up 4.9%.