Waitrose will swing the axe on five more supermarkets, it said today, putting 440 jobs at risk.

The stores set for closure are: Torquay, Teignmouth, Blaby in Leicestershire, Barry in Vale of Glamorgan and Ashbourne in Derbyshire. The sites will be sold to rival retailers, the grocer said.

It is the second wave of Waitrose store closures in the last year after the firm said in June it was closing four of its convenience shops and one small supermarket.

Waitrose is closing five of its full-size supermarkets as it accelerates its shift to online

As its parent company - John Lewis Partnership - lifted the lid on full-year results, Waitrose boss Rob Collins said the under-performing stores 'were not working for us'.

Outgoing chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield added that 'no retailer in the land doesn't regularly review its shops'.

It comes as the retail group slashes the bonus for its 83,000 employees to just 3 per cent - the lowest level since 1953.

John Lewis said it is bolstering its finances against turbulence in the retail sector and ensuring it has the cash to withstand any upcoming Brexit volatility.

At a group level, profits sunk 45 per cent last year, driven by heavy investment costs and 'the most promotional market for a decade' hurting its department store business.

Stronger gross margins at Waitrose, meanwhile, helped the supermarket chalk up an 18 per cent jump in profits - a strong rebound from 2017's 33 per cent slump.

Just last week it emerged that Waitrose was set to be dropped by long-term partner Ocado next year when its 20 year contract comes to an end.

Ocado has penned a conflicting deal with M&S so will no longer distribute Waitrose products.

Speaking today, Collins brushed off concerns about the lost sales channel and reasserted that the termination will help it to grow its own Waitrose.com food delivery service, which the firm has invested heavily in over the last five years.

Ocado and Waitrose will end their 20-year partnership next year. Ocado has penned a deal with Waitrose rival M&S instead

Online sales spiked 24 per cent last week, he said, as news of the Ocado and M&S partnership alerted shoppers to Waitrose's in-house platform.

Collins added that, unlike some of its rivals, Waitrose's online delivery platform was profitable because it focused on basket sizes that are 'nicely north' of £100.

The grocer, which has around 350 shops, plans to open a new fulfilment centre to support growing volumes in the London area.

GlobalData analyst Thomas Brereton said: 'With its partnership with Ocado set to end, Waitrose are now looking to stand on its own two feet in online food retail, a logical strategy given the overall online grocery market's 9.3 per cent growth in 2018.'

Brereton added that, 'despite the enduring turmoil in the premium food space,' Waitrose has rebounded through 'inventive product innovation', including rapid expansion of its free-from and vegan ranges.

Its other innovation has been 'impressively outside the box,' he said. This included robotic farming, agricultural AI and aeroponic instore displays.