One of the most senior executives at John Lewis said yesterday that he feared the economy was at a delicate point as the department store group reported its worst weekly sales fall for three years.

Patrick Lewis, director of retail operations, echoed the bleak comments made by Marks & Spencer on Wednesday and said that there appeared to have been a notable fall in consumer confidence in recent weeks.

He said: “Over the last six weeks it's certainly got an edge tougher than the six weeks before. Large TVs has become a much more difficult market - they have been good for quite a long time, and growing at quite a strong rate, but that has dropped away.”

Sales across the privately owned group's department stores and internet site fell 8.3per cent in the week to June 28 - the worst figure since the week after the July 7 London Underground bombings in 2005.

Bluewater was the worst-performing store with a fall of 24.6 per cent in the week despite the start of a clearance sale.

The performance means that sales across the department store business in the first 22 weeks of its financial year were up only 0.7 per cent on a year ago.

Mr Lewis said that while the group's clothing department had surpassed internal expectations over the 22-week period, “big ticket” homewares were slightly below expectations.

He added: “I think the economy is at a delicate point, because a lot of it is dependent of people's expectations and at the moment there is a nervousness. That said, when you look at the spending, people are still spending in a number of areas.

“Some of what I read in the press makes it out to be a market where everything is going to stop and I think we could talk ourselves into that, but we are not at that stage at the moment.”

Sir Stuart Rose, the chief executive of M&S, said there had been a “marked deterioration” in consumer confidence when he gave warning to investors on Wednesday that the group would miss profit expectations this year.

He said that homeowners across the country would have to cut back to cope with rising energy bills, mortgage payments and record petrol prices.

Shares in M&S fell 4per cent to a new eight-year low of 227p yesterday as its joint house broker Citigroup slashed its profit forecasts for 2009 and 2010 by 17per cent and 29per cent respectively.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said that John Lewis's figures confirmed his fears that the prospects for consumer spending were pretty bleak. “John Lewis department store sales are generally seen as a good bellwether for the health of consumer spending,” he said.

“Consequently, the evidence of markedly faltering sales, following on from this week's very disappointing figures from Marks & Spencer, clearly points to consumers reining in their spending in the face of squeezed purchasing power and other serious pressures.”

Mr Lewis said that John Lewis was not cutting back on its planned investment despite the bleak economic climate and insisted that the weekly sales figure suffered from comparison with a particularly strong performance a year ago.

He added that fashion sales are running up to 6per cent up on last year while sales of fitted kitchens are up 8 per cent.

“There are some really good opportunities for us,” Mr Lewis said.

Waitrose, the John Lewis-owned supermarket chain, reported a 3 per cent sales rise in the week to June 28. Sales fell in one of its ten regions.

M&S goes ahead with consumer brands test

— Marks & Spencer is turning to Comfort and Elastoplast as it looks to kick-start a sales revival by pressing ahead with a trial in which it will stock consumer brands for the first time since the late 1950s

— The retailer yesterday reiterated that it would test the scheme in 19 North East stores from Monday despite Wednesday's dismissal of Steven Esom as head of food

— More than 350 brands, including Comfort fabric conditioner, Fanta, Branston Pickle, Mars, Ribena and Whiskas, will be available as M&S tries to win customers back from its supermarket rivals

— M&S sold brands such as Cadbury's drinking chocolate and Jaffa Oranges until it switched exclusively to its own St Michael brand 50 years ago

— Sir Stuart Rose, M&S chief executive, said of the trial: “If it works, we will do more of it. If it does not work, we will not.”

— Like-for-like sales revenue in the food business fell 4.5 per cent in the 22 weeks to June 28, despite spiralling food price inflation

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