John Lewis both dented and boosted by hot weather, summer fashion sales rise

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 30, 2019

John Lewis both benefited and suffered from the warmer UK weather in the latest week with the firm’s sales figures for the seven days to July 27 showing just how much of an impact temperatures can have.

The parent company, John Lewis Partnership, actually saw its total sales falling 0.8% to almost £209 million. And the John Lewis & Partners department store chain also announced a sales dip, although one so small that sales could almost be said to be flat year-on-year. 

They actually fell 0.3% with the company noting the "the hot weather impacting trade during the week.” The heatwave last week was intense, so that’s no surprise.

But the firm’s fashion department sales rose as much as 3.2%, “driven by demand for high summer womenswear items as customers refreshed their summer wardrobes.”

It looks like shoppers aren’t in the mood to buy new-season merchandise just yet, although in one area they are looking ahead. John Lewis said that “we also saw families starting to get ready for the school term in September, with sales of school shoes up 4%.”

But as usual, Home department sales were down, this time by 8.5%, “as the hot weather impacted customer demand for homeware products.”