Waitrose has delivered a strong Christmas performance with like-for-like sales up 2.8% in the five weeks to January 3.

Waitrose has delivered a strong Christmas performance with like-for-likes up 2.8 per cent in the five weeks to January 3.

Total sales excluding fuel increased 7% to £728m while online sales jumped 26.3%.

Waitrose managing director Mark Price said: “This strong sales performance in a tough trading environment is a tribute to all our partners who work so hard to give the high-quality products and outstanding service that customers want all year round and especially at Christmas.

“As a business owned by the people who work here, we can take the long-term view and our Christmas results show the effectiveness of our strategy of investing in good value, in making our shops attractive destinations and in building our online business.”

Waitrose has also unveiled plans for a new dotcom fulfilment centre as it expands its online business.

The new centre, scheduled to open in Coulsdon on March 3, will have twice the capacity of its existing fulfilment centre in Acton, which Waitrose is proposing to close in spring 2015. The grocer is looking at how it can redeploy staff to the new centre.