'Encouraging' John Lewis sales fail to reach Liverpool

Apr 11 2008

JOHN Lewis's Liverpool store saw another fall in like-for-like sales last week but the Partnership maintained “very encouraging” sales in the post-Easter week. John Lewis said sales of televisions and computers rose sharply last week after the poor weather boosted interest in indoor products.

The department store chain reported a 2% sales lift to £48.5 million for the week to last Saturday, with the figure 6% stronger when compared with the equivalent post-Easter trading week last year.

However the Liverpool stores sales dropped 3.8% for the week and remain 3.7% behind last year for the first 10 weeks of the year.

Andy Banks, head of supply chain, said: “The desire to stay indoors has driven outstanding sales of TVs, up 14%, and computers, up 30%. In both areas the internet continues to be the growth channel with johnlewis.com sales of TVs up over 200% on last year.”

Staff at John Lewis and Waitrose recently celebrated the award of one-fifth of their salary as an annual bonus.

The pay-out followed a strong year for the Partnership, with profits for the year ended January 26 up £59.7 million to £379.8 million and overall group sales from continuing operations up 6.3% to £6.8 billion.

However, the group warned that its 26 John Lewis stores and 187 Waitrose food shops faced “very challenging” trading for the rest of this year and possibly into next year as the economic downturn took its toll.