What: A report released ahead of the official results due in March shows signs that the retailer’s profits are headed in the right direction.

Why it is important: Profits are being boosted both by higher sales and by the firm’s cost-cutting drive. The less good news is that much of the success seems to have been driven by Waitrose rather than by its department stores.

The report said that while Waitrose sales boomed, John Lewis sales fell short as product shortages due to supply chain issues and lower footfall dampened spending.

When its last set of results was released last September, they showed times were still tough for the retailer but that it had begun to recover from issues that had pre-dated the pandemic. For the first six months of the financial year, profit before exceptional items was a low GBP 69 million. But that was GBP 124 million up on the 2020/21 year, when it made a loss of GBP 55 million. Importantly it was also an improvement on a two-year basis as the first half of 2019/20 had seen it making a loss of GBP 52 million.

John Lewis profits are on recovery trail