John Lewis hit by sunny weather but own-brand and lingerie are strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 5, 2018

The news wasn't quite as good as usual for the John Lewis department store chain as it delivered its latest weekly figures on Tuesday. While its parent company, John Lewis Partnership, managed to drive its sales up very slightly (0.5%) to reach £214.51 million, the chain itself barely grew at all.

The overall group rise was due to better trading at its sister supermarket chain Waitrose. Meanwhile the department stores operation saw a sales increase in the seven days up to June 2 of only 0.1%.

The company said that the particularly warm bank holiday had an impact on sales, as consumers spent the holiday weekend enjoying the sunny weather rather than shopping.

And that had a marked negative effect on fashion sales, which were down 4.5%. That said, there were some standout areas within fashion and John Lewis said that own-brand was one of them. Its Kin line rose 82%, which is undeniably impressive. And it was also the biggest week ever in lingerie, with sales here driven by the company’s price matching policy.

But once again, the Home directory saw its sales falling. They were down 2.4%, although Outdoor Living continued to perform well, with sales for the week up 8.7%. Its Summer and Poolside collections also both had strong weeks and promotional activity within Cookshop helped sales rise by 6.5%.

There was strength in electricals too and the company said that it was a record week for smartwatches. This might have been driven by Father’s Day, which happens this month.