Waitrose boss: Britons should brace themselves for 'massive' food price hikes Mr Price's comments came as the upmarket supermarket group enjoyed record sales over Christmas as it grabbed more customers from Britain's "big four" supermarkets. The company, owned by the John Lewis Partnership, said like-for-like sales rose 5.4pc between December 18 and December 31. This sent total sales during the period through £300m for the first time. It comes after Waitrose reported like-for-like sales growth of 4.3pc for the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. The growth of Waitrose is likely to sharply outstrip that of Tesco, Asda, J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison, the country's biggest supermarkets. Waitrose has a market share of 4.5pc in the UK, still far below the 30.7pc for Tesco. The grocer opened 18 new shops last year, including eight convenience stores, taking its total to 288.