Department store group John Lewis notched up another strong week of trading as it beat last year’s sales by 15 per cent.

Twenty-three branches beat budget, 24 were up on last year and 10 exceeded 2008 levels, said director of operational development at John Lewis, Andrew Murphy.

“With the majority of schools on half-term break, matching the timing of last year's holiday, our shops enjoyed good footfall throughout the week and this converted to strong sales, with each day seeing double-digit growth on the corresponding day from 2009,” Mr Murphy said.

Top performing store during the week to February 20 was Bluewater, up 21.7 per cent on last year, followed by Trafford, ahead by 19.3 per cent, and Cambridge, up 19.2 per cent.

Online sales at johnlewis.com were a third up on last year’s figures.

While electricals and home technology had a more mixed result than the fashion and home sectors, it still managed to be 3.9 per cent ahead of the same week in 2009 and, said Mr Murphy, was comfortably ahead of the two-year figure.