The woman in charge of John Lewis�s Glasgow department store said she expected it to defy concerns of a sharp slowdown on UK high streets by increasing sales in 2008-09.

The woman in charge of John Lewis's Glasgow department store said she expected it to defy concerns of a sharp slowdown on UK high streets by increasing sales in 2008-09, albeit not at the bumper rates seen in the past year.

Five weeks into the company's latest trading year, Lesley Ballantyne, managing director, said she remained bullish about prospects for the Glasgow store, following a year in which it had been one of the star performers in a vintage period for the John Lewis Partnership.

The group said yesterday its department stores grew total sales by 5.6%, to £2.8bn, in the year ended January 26, despite increasing fears that the credit crunch and a housing market slowdown could trigger deep cuts in consumer spending.

With growth in sales of 5%, the Glasgow city centre outlet was the fourth-best performer of the 26 stores in the UK.

In Scotland, its performance was bettered only by the outlet in Aberdeen. This was the top-ranked John Lewis store, pushing sales up by 8.8%.

Edinburgh had the sixth-fastest growth rate, at 4%.

Ballantyne said trading since the year-end indicated that consumers were becoming more cautious. However, there were clear signs that shoppers were still prepared to spend freely in some areas.

"For Glasgow the first five weeks have been fairly tough, not that we did not expect that, but it has been a game of two halves. Customers are holding back on bigger purchases like furniture and fitted carpets, yet they are still spending on some nice luxuries like beauty products and fashions."

Seasonal goods like Mother's Day gifts had been "flying off the shelves", said Ballantyne, who confirmed that John Lewis had not had to resort to special promotions to boost sales.

Ballantyne said she expected the Glasgow store to grow like-for-like sales by between 2% and 3% in the first six months of the year.

She agreed that John Lewis may be helped by the fact it has a more affluent consumer base than some rivals. However, she noted the store also appealed to value shoppers with its pledge to be "never knowingly undersold".

Ballantyne believes the Glasgow store should benefit from the housing market appearing to be in better shape in Scotland than south of the border.

The picture is clouded by the fact that John Lewis Partnership does not allocate online sales to any geographic area. Online sales surged by 41.2% in the first five weeks.

John Lewis Partnership said it expected trading conditions to be very challenging. "However, we believe that the diversity of our business across the home and grocery sectors and the benefits of our partnership model makes us able to perform well even in testing market conditions," it said in a statement.

Like-for-like sales at John Lewis department stores rose by 5%. The chain increased its market share by 0.5% to 19.3%.

The partnership's Waitrose supermarket operation boosted sales by 6.8% to just under £4bn, up 3.6% on a like-for-like basis excluding petrol, with market share steady at 3.9%.

Two Edinburgh stores that opened in 2006 were as busy as leading outlets in London.

The partnership increased operating profits (excluding property gains) by 17.1% to £402m.