John Lewis says its sales for the five weeks to 2 January broke a number of records.

John Lewis has had a record breaking Christmas according to figures from its festive trading statement with total sales up 15.8% compared to the same period last year.

During four separate weeks, sales reached more than £100 million, beating its biggest ever week from 2007.

For the five weeks to 2 January 2010, like-for-like sales were up 12.7%. Fashion sales, including beauty saw the biggest increase with sales up 22% and home product sales were up by 19.4%.

Managing Director of John Lewis, Andy Street, attributed the company’s outstanding performance on its great line of products, at great value as well as John Lewis’ consistently exceptional service.

“We have seen excellent sales during Christmas and Clearance. The five-week period has seen a number of records broken.”

However Mr Street warned that 2010 will continue to see a long, slow recovery in the retail market, and says the winners will be those stores that focus on the customer.

John Lewis’ sister company Waitrose also recorded exceptional results over the Christmas trading period with an increase in sales of more than 20% for the week ending 26 December.

Despite VAT returning to 17.5% on 1 January 2010, some retailers have opted to cushion the blow for customers by temporarily freezing VAT at 15%. John Lewis, together with Argos, Dorothy Perkins and Topshop are some of those UK high street favourites to do so.

John Lewis is not the only retailer to buck the downward trend. Next said its total sales for the 22 weeks to 24 December 2009 were up 4.6% and as a consequence has raised its yearly profit forecast to between £490 - £500m – up from its previous estimate of £472m.