John Lewis sales suffer in the heat

John Lewis sales have returned to negative territory after hot weather and sporting events overshadowed the start of its summer clearance.

The department store chain's sales fell 3.7% to £51 million in the week to Saturday, following an improvement of 2.2% in the previous seven days.

John Lewis said it had been a good week given distractions caused by tennis, rugby and the weather at the start of its summer sale on Saturday.

A handful of stores improved on the opening day of the clearance period last year, with Newcastle up 11%, Solihull ahead 4% and Norwich 2% stronger.

The weather had the opposite impact at Waitrose after the grocery arm of the John Lewis Partnership reported a 10.1% rise in sales over the week.

Sales of quiches were up by 28%, with continental meat sales ahead 20% and purchases from the olive bar up 29% on the same week a year earlier.