The 65,000 staff – or partners as they are called  at retail group John Lewis are to share a record bonus of £155m after the firm recorded a 27% rise in pre-tax profits to £319m.<!-more->

The saving and investment opportunity presented to the staff of John Lewis by the level of profit the firm recorded was described as “significant”, and is up 29% on last year, amounting to the equivalent of nine weeks’ pay for each of them.

Overall sales at the group, including food store Waitrose, grew 11% to £6.4bn, justifying the huge UK investment made in the group.

The John Lewis store part of the group reported an 11% increase, with like-for-like sales improved by 10.3%. Turnover at Waitrose also grew by 11% to £3.7bn.

Chairman Stuart Hampson said the group had enjoyed “a simply stunning year” and that both divisions had made “an encouraging start to what is expected to be a more challenging new trading year”.

City analyst Colin Perry said: “These are excellent numbers, above my expectations at least, and it is heartening to see that John Lewis made a significant UK investment of a top-up £85m into its pension scheme.