Southampton’S flagship John Lewis store is preparing for a tough year ahead after coming down to earth from an “outstanding”

Christmas.

John Lewis bosses have revealed WestQuay shopping centre’s anchor store netted a 2.5 per cent rise in sales in the four weeks to Christmas Eve – with £1m worth of Ipads flying out the doors as a star performer.

Sales in its newly revamped technology department rose nine per cent.

Beauty was up seven per cent on last year, bringing in around £4m in the four weeks to Christmas.

On a visit to the store, which is currently vying with High Wycombe for eighth spot in the John Lewis league table, managing director Andy Street said that while it was now clear the retailer was “very much in the winner’s camp” for Christmas sales, this year would be challenging.

He said the group was expecting a return on the £5m spent on the Southampton store before Christmas in a sign of “confidence in the shop as one of our best performing shops”.

Mr Street said: “We hope Southampton will be better than the average in the coming year. We’ve spent a lot of money on this shop this (financial) year, so we need to get our return on that next year.

“We’re not expecting to have falling sales but if we achieve in our shops a little better than flat, we think that will be a good performance in what looks like a challenging economy.

“We’re not planning on an economic disaster, we're planning on small growth.”

He said Southampton had suffered in the regional downturn but added: “I think we are through the worst of that.”

However, the year has already started with a post-Christmas whimper for the John Lewis group after posting a 6.2 per cent rise in like-for-like sales, including Internet orders, in the five weeks to December 31, totalling over £0.5 billion.

The company’s latest figures show a drop of 2.2 per cent in year-on-year sales for the week up to January 7, coinciding with its ongoing clearance sales.

Sales in Southampton were down 12.3 per cent.

Southampton store manager Mark Venables said he was relishing the challenge, with a friendly competition with fellow John Lewis stores in High Wycombe and Brent Cross, ranked eighth and seventh by sales, spurring on his 800 staff.

He said the Southampton store, which takes just over £100m each year, and a further £25m in internet sales in its large catchment area from Brighton to Lyme Regis to Newbury, remained a “powerful shop” in the region.

After opening in 2000, it has just undergone a £5m revamp of the whole first floor to freshen up and add more space to menswear, furniture and consumer electronics..

One thing that is certain is John Lewis, and Waitrose staff, who part own the company under a model championed yesterday by deputy PM Nick Clegg, will receive a reduced share bonus this year, after half-year results were significantly down.