Sales rise at John Lewis

Jul 25 2008

Department store chain John Lewis today said demand for fashion ranges helped it exceed last year's weekly sales haul.

The group, which has 26 branches including a flagship store in Solihull, announced revenues of just under £50 million for the week to last Saturday, representing a 0.4% improvement on the same period of 2007.

Retail operations director Patrick Lewis said: "After a slow start, the week picked up well, netting a solid increase over the last four days."
Fashion department sales were ahead 5.7% on a year earlier, but electricals and technology fell 0.6% and home department revenues dipped 4.7%.

Trade via johnlewis.com was up more than a third, helped by a 50% increase in visitors to the website. London's Oxford Street was the strongest performing branch with sales growth of 9.4%, followed by Edinburgh with 4.9%.

Stores at Aberdeen, Newcastle and Reading also recorded sales growth during the second week of the company's summer clearance period.

The opening week saw sales growth of 5.9% as hard-pressed shoppers snapped up bargains. The figure represented a welcome boost for the chain after falls in previous weeks.

At Waitrose, which is the supermarket business of the John Lewis Partnership, sales rose 1.4% to £74.7 million