John Lewis fashion strength continues despite slow week overall

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 1, 2018

It was a slow week at John Lewis Partnership in the seven days to April 28 with the Department store chain and webstore’s parent company seeing its total turnover increasing only 0.3% to almost £216 million.

It was helped by a small increase at the Waitrose supermarket chain, but the John Lewis unit itself fared worse with a 0.3% drop during the week, partly due to the annualising of the first May public holiday, which was a week earlier last year.

But at least the Fashion directory performed better with sales up 2% as both womenswear and menswear managed to turn in increases of 8.2% each. The company said that the sunny weather at the start of the week encouraged customers to update their summer wardrobes with warm weather clothing rising a healthy 18%. 

And the retailer’s own label denim lifestyle brand, And/Or was “a particular standout last week” with an astonishing 60% sales rise. Women’s shoes also had a record week, with sales rising an impressive 30%. Of course, these huge increases could have been partially accounted for by pent-up demand as cold weather earlier in the season saw consumers delaying summer denim and sandal purchases.

Home directory sales were down 1.6%, although outdoor living saw a second consecutive week of strong performance driven by the weather. Upholstery saw an uplift of 2.1% with new products driving sales.