Sales fall at UK's John Lewis in week to August 15

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Aug 21, 2015

Sales were down 1.9% at UK bellwether retailer John Lewis in the week to August 15, falling to £73.10m. The company blamed strong figures in 2014 and changeable weather in the week for the decline.

John Lewis also pointed out that this year, the Back to School period and seasonal build to the bank holiday weekend are running one week later than in 2014. Online sales did better, and increased by 9.4%.

Fashion was the best-performing product area for the second week in a row, with menswear doing the best with a 5.9% increase in sales. Home sales were down 3.8% on the previous year but Home Accessories and Gifts sales posted an increase of 4.5%.

Andrew Murphy, Retail Director, John Lewis, said: "Looking ahead at future opportunities, we are fast approaching the start of the Rugby World Cup, we have just launched the new Home catalogue, refreshed the Interior Design Hub and in Fashion we are seeing lots of newness coming through across both shops and online. We also have building excitement in Birmingham with occupation of our new shop beginning next week."