A strong end to clearance for John Lewis
John Lewis said the last days of clearance helped it to achieve strong trading across all of its directorates last week with sales closing up 10.2% on last year.
Fashion sales increased by 9.3% boosted by buoyant trade in menswear and childrenswear. Sales of men’s branded casualwear were particularly strong, up 27.7% on the year, while formalwear also performed well with a 25.5% gain.
Home sales climbed by 14.8% with many categories achieving double-digit increases. Furniture sales grew by 17.4%, driven by strong performances in fitted furniture and living and dining.
Electricals and home technology sales continued to build momentum with an increase of 6.3%. Some of the best performing categories were vision and tablets and computing.
Within the shops, 36 branches were up on last year led by Poole, Southampton and Liverpool where sales increased by 26.8%, 23.8% and 21.9% respectively.
Online sales were up 16.6% on the year, with a strong performance across all directorates.
Dino Rocos, operations director at John Lewis, said: “As we move towards the end of the half, we are in a good position to offer our customers a taste of things to come with a strong representation of new season stock arriving online and in our branches.
“The changeable weather is on our side as warmer snaps see increased demand for high summer lines and short showers encourage our customers to begin to think about Back to School and the all-important second half of the year.”
