John Lewis sales rise by 5.3% last week
John Lewis said its penultimate clearance sale week did not disappoint with sales up 5.3% last week.
Seventeen branches were up on last year. The south coast stores posted some of the strongest percentage increases, with sales at the Poole, Knight & Lee and Southampton stores rising by 13.8%, 7.8% and 7.1% respectively. The London stores fared less well as trade at Oxford Street and Peter Jones was impacted by reduced footfall due to the tube and rail strike disruption on Thursday.
Online sales at JL.com rose by 21.4% year-on-year.
Looking at the directorates, fashion sales climbed by 6.2% with menswear leading the way with a 12.1% increase and strong performances coming from warm weather merchandise.
Electricals and home technology sales delivered growth of 6.1% as trade benefited from the clearance sale particularly in the large appliance and audio and TV departments.
Home sales rose 4.5% with big ticket, outdoor living and furniture the main drivers of growth.
Johnathan Marsh, buying director for electricals and home technology, said: “A pleasing week for the division in the context of the tube and rail strike disruption on Thursday and the hot weather going into the weekend. The penultimate clearance week did not disappoint as we finished up 5.3% on last year with some decent scores across the board.
“We remain optimistic for the week ahead given that newness has started well and we go into the final week of clearance.”
