John Lewis fashion has good week but home department struggles again

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 16, 2019

John Lewis Partnership sales inched up only slightly in the seven days up to and including July 13 with a 0.7% increase that took the retailer just short of £217 million.

But the John Lewis department store chain performed slightly better than the company as a whole with total sales for the week rising 1.3% as customers continued to shop in its clearance sale.

And in a piece of good news for physical stores in general, the company said that “it was a particularly good week in our shops, despite being up against a busy weekend of sport.” Britons were clearly out and about and happy to visit the bricks and mortar locations that they seem to be shunning more often these days.

It was a good week for the Fashion department as well with an overall increase of 7.2% in its sales and its own-brand fashion performing particularly well with a 6.6% sales rise. The company didn't give any detail on whether it was summer collections or early transitional products that were strongest, however.

Home department sales were down 0.7%, continuing this department’s increasingly long run of weak figures, although textiles and home accessories had a good week with sales up 8.1%.