High street giant John Lewis became the latest victim of the high street crisis on Wednesday, warning that first half profits will likely to be substantially lower than a year ago.

The department store chain, which also owns upmarket supermarket Waitrose, admitted in a statement that profits could be close to zero.

Sales at the group fell 0.8 per cent year-on-year to £226.77 million for the week ending June 23. Waitrose recorded a 0.2 per cent year-on-year sales growth, however, but John Lewis reported a drop of 2.2 per cent year-on-year.

Waitrose had a far better performance than John Lewis for the period, proving the relative strength of the grocery market in comparison to high street stores.

“Despite the mixed bag of weather, horticulture performed strongly, seeing sales rise by eight per cent. Houseplants were popular up 28 per cent and outdoor plant sales boosted 15 per cent,” Waitrose commercial director Rupert Thomas said.

“Beers, wines, spirits and tobacco had a good week with sales up 2.4 per cent. Wine performed particularly well up seven per cent with sparkling wine saw an uplift of 28 per cent.

However, home sales were down 3.7 per cent, fashion sales were down 0.1 per cent and electrical and home technology sales fell by 3.4 per cent.

The group said it was also planning to close several small Waitrose stores, including one in Camden, two Little Waitrose outlets in Manchester and one in Birmingham.