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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/john-lewis-set-for-higher-profits.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="John Lewis is expected to announce a rise in annual profits" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/min-john-lewis-set-for-higher-profits.jpg" alt="John Lewis is expected to announce a rise in annual profits"/></a></p>
<p>Employee-owned John Lewis is expected to reveal another hike in annual profits next week despite a slowdown in sales as consumers rein in their spending.</p>
<p>The group, which runs supermarket Waitrose and Britain&#8217;s biggest department store by sales, has outperformed rivals for the past few years as its more affluent consumers were able to cope better during the recession.</p>
<p>However, weekly sales figures since the end of January have suggested that customers are starting to spend more cautiously.</p>
<p>Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: &#8220;It does appear that John Lewis sales have lost significant overall momentum in recent weeks, which is a worrying sign for consumer spending given that John Lewis has very much been an outperformer in the retail sector.&#8221;</p>
<p>The group is still expected to post a 15% rise in pre-tax profits to £352 million for the year to January, according to analysts Arden Partners.</p>
<p>The 147-year-old group will also announce the annual bonus for its 70,000 employees, or &#8220;partners&#8221;. Last year, staff shared a bonus pot of £151.3 million, with payments worth 15% of salary.</p>
<p>The group reported a slight bounceback in sales at its department store business in the seven days to last Saturday, helped by the half-term holiday break at schools in England. The figures showed sales of £54 million, including VAT, at its department stores, a 7.2% increase on last year.</p>
<p>David Barford, director of selling operations, said childrenswear saw a 34.8% increase on last year, supported by children&#8217;s shoes sales which were up 69%. He added: &#8220;Having said that, mums were shopping for themselves, too, and womenswear delivered 10%, with a particularly good performance from the John Lewis womenswear collection.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, researcher Kantar Worldpanel&#8217;s latest data shows Waitrose, which has expanded rapidly with a large number of store openings in recent months, now has its largest-ever share of the UK grocery market.</p>
<p>Waitrose, with 244 branches including 13 convenience shops, saw sales including petrol in the week to February 26 increase 6.2% to £94.9 million.</p>
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