Waitrose staff in £2,000 bonus

Upmarket store staff in the West Midlands are set to pick up a windfall bonus averaging £2,200 each.

Waitrose today revealed it and parent company John Lewis enjoyed its "best Christmas ever".

The supermarket and department stores group reported sales of more than £100 million a week in the fortnight before Christmas and has enjoyed another surge for its post-Christmas clearance sale.

Based on the way it split up last year's profits, the John Lewis Partnership's 70,000 staff – including those at Waitrose stores in Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, Lichfield and Newport and the West Midlands' sole John Lewis store in Solihull – will get a bonus worth a fifth of their salary in March.

John Lewis always refers to its staff as "partners". All own a stake in the business and get a share of the annual profits.

Andy Street, managing director at John Lewis, said: "This has been our best Christmas ever."

The bumper Christmas followed six weeks of strong sales as fashion and electrical goods such as iPods, lingerie, cashmere and decorations flew off the shelves at the chain of 26 stores, while its 187 Waitrose supermarkets also performed well.

Releasing its figures for early December, the group recently heaped praise on its Penn Road store in Wolverhampton, a former Safeway bought in 2004.

Summing up good results across the country, Waitrose said: "The crown went to Wolverhampton for its dazzling all-round performance."

Now John Lewis looks set for its third year running of record profit, and staff are set to benefit.

Boxing Day was believed to be another strong day for John Lewis – and for the retail sector as a whole – with its sales up 8.5 per cent on a year earlier.