Staff at the John Lewis Partnership will receive a 15% annual bonus this year, the equivalent of almost eight weeks’ pay, after the group said 2013 had been a “good year”.

The bonus, paid to all the 91,000 staff at the group, is lower than the 17% seen the previous year after pre-tax profits fell 4% to £329.1 million.

The partnership's chairman, Charlie Mayfield: “"There are more encouraging signs for the economy as a whole and, although this has not yet come through as a significant increase in consumer spending, I am cautiously optimistic that we will see improvements this year.

"I am confident that however quickly the UK economy emerges from this prolonged period of slow growth, the partnership is well positioned to continue to strengthen."