A STRING of positive figures from major retailers have added weight to reports that big stores locally traded well in the run-up to Christmas.

Dr Jeff Bray, retailing expert at Bournemouth University, said the crop of figures had undermined predictions of the death of the high street.

Figures from Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Tesco are among those suggesting strong festive trading.

However, both John Lewis and Next have warned that rising prices and lacklustre wage growth threaten to bring the consumer spending boom to an end.

Dr Bray said: “The figures show online is continuing to grow but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it’s still only 15 per cent of the market so it’s still a very small minority of the market.

“The way Christmas fell on a Sunday where, in effect, you had four more trading days before Christmas, enabled numbers to look pretty healthy across the board, as does the fact that this year’s performance is being compared to last year and last year was pretty terrible.

“For some retailers, like M&S, who are reporting they did better than last year, you have to remember that last year they did about three per cent worse than the year before.”

He said Aldi and Lidl did well, but on the back of new store openings, whereas sales in established stores may have “plateaued”.

He pointed out that shares in retailers fell yesterday despite the positive results. Warnings of a tougher 2017 could be a factor.

“We haven’t felt the effects of Brexit. The pound has fallen roughly 15 per cent overall but most of the goods we were buying at Christmas either were bought by the retailer before the fall of the pound or the retailer had insured against currency fluctuations,” he said.

“That 15 per cent either has to be absorbed by the supplier or by the retailer or by the customer. The reality is it will be a bit of all of those.”

M&S revealed sales growth in its clothing arm for the first time in nearly two years. Like-for-like sales in its clothing and home division rose 2.3 per cent in the 13 weeks to December 31, while food halls saw a 0.6 per cent rise.

John Lewis Partnership saw a 2.7 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in department stores – including Branksome’s John Lewis at Home – in the six weeks to December 31, while Waitrose saw a 2.8 per cent increase. But the employee-owned group still warned its staff bonus could be “significantly lower” than last year.

Tesco posted a 0.7 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to January 7, while Sainsbury’s posted a 0.1 per cent rise in the 15 weeks to January 7.