John Lewis Managing Director Andy Street has said that Birmingham city centre will get a John Lewis store when the right site comes up.

Speaking during a visit to the firm's Solihull branch, Street said: “There’s no secret we’ve been looking for a site for many years and if the right opportunity came up we’d be very pleased to take it. We believe Birmingham is the regional capital and we want to be represented in the regional capitals. The market is good and we can see that Birmingham is second ranking in the national rankings of retail locations so we should be there.”

In the West Midlands, Mr Street said that Solihull was making a “marvellous contribution” to the national John Lewis figures, where sales are up 13 per cent on last year’s numbers

Homeware in Solihull is doing particularly well – a sign of strength in the local housing market.

Mr Street added that even if a Birmingham store were to open, Solihull would retain its own distinct market, serving the affluent towns in the south east of the region such as Leamington Spa, Warwick and Stratford.

“Solihull is a destination to rival the city centre and we believe our takings here are already comparable to the big department stores in Birmingham."