This week’s big story
LONDON, 2014-11-18 — /EPR Retail News/ — This week saw sales of £108.8m, breaking the £100m barrier for the first time this year and matching our 2013 record for the earliest week to have reached this milestone. Lighting had its best ever sales week and was +10.4 % year on year.
Weekly trading update
This week saw sales of £108.8m, breaking the £100m barrier for the first time this year and matching our 2013 record for the earliest week to have reached this milestone. Sales were +7.2% on last year and +13.7% week on week. Online sales were +15% year on year.
Top of mind for customers this week was giving their homes a pre-Christmas makeover to be ‘guest-ready’ for the festive season, with sales of furniture and home entertaining a driving force.
Home showed the strongest signs of this trend with sales +9.0% year on year. Lighting had its best ever sales week and was +10.4% year on year. Within Home, guest beds and bedlinen were particularly strong performers +50% and +11% year on year respectively.
Being ready to welcome guests for the festive season was a theme also borne out in our EHT assortment which posted growth at +4.7% for the year. Large screen televisions over 50″ led this charge +65% year on year indicating that families will be gathering at home to watch Christmas specials. Pre-Christmas kitchen improvements have also commenced with Smeg Range Cookers +179% year on year. This was joined by impressive week on week performances from the Bosch American Style Fridge Freezer +44% and John Lewis Built In Oven +10%.
Our fashion and beauty assortments have also shown strong results at +8.5% year on year with premium beauty demonstrating particularly impressive year on year growth +17.3%.
In our shops, our Countdown to Christmas event drove footfall to branches, with stand-out performances from our at home shops including Newbury +21.4%, Chichester +20.3%, Poole 19.6%, and Tunbridge Wells +13.5%, along with two of our more recent store openings Exeter +19.0% and Stratford +12.5.%.
There was also high praise for our omnichannel offering as our shops and supply chain both received accolades this week. We were named Retail and Etail Fulfilment Operation of the Year at the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards alongside John Lewis York being named Best Department Store of the Year at the Retail Week Interiors Awards.
Simon Russell, director, Retail Operations Development at John Lewis, said: ‘We’re delighted to have broken the £100m sales barrier this week matching our previous record for the earliest week to achieve this level of sales. Alongside this our lighting department achieved its best ever sales week +10.4% year on year, with designer brands performing particularly well. This is particularly pleasing reinforcing John Lewis as the destination for both design-led and practical home interiors. Planning for additional guests over the festive period appears well under way this week with customers giving their homes pre-Christmas makeovers with impressive results from guest beds and kitchen appliances.
‘Sales were also helped by customers coming into shops for our Countdown to Christmas weekend. Our Never Knowingly Undersold promise also came into force as we matched a competitor’s promotion.’
All figures quoted are total sales including VAT
- +7.2% year on year increase
- +13.7% week on week increase
- £108.8m sterling total
- 15.0% year on year increase johnlewis.com
Week on week increases are percentage increase in sales value.
What Britain’s buying
(year on year % increase)
- +179% Smeg range cookers
- +65% Large screen TVs (over 50″)
- +50% Guest beds
- +11% Bedlinen
- +10.4% Lighting.
Notes to editors
John Lewis – John Lewis operates 43 John Lewis shops across the UK (31 department stores, ten John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. It is part of the John Lewis Partnership, the UK’s largest example of worker co-ownership where all 30,000 staff are Partners in the business. John Lewis, ‘Multichannel Retailer of the Year 2014’¹ , ‘Best Overall Retailer’² and ‘Best Retailer 2014’³, typically stocks more than 350,000 separate lines in its department stores across fashion, home and technology. Johnlewis.com stocks over 280,000 products, and is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK. John Lewis Insurance offers a range of comprehensive insurance products – home, car, wedding and event, travel and pet insurance and life cover – delivering the values of expertise, trust and customer service expected from the John Lewis brand.
¹ Oracle Retail Week Awards 2014
² Verdict Consumer Satisfaction Awards 2014
³ Which? Awards 2014.
Enquiries
For further information please contact:
Email: johnlewis@brands2life.com
Telephone: 0207 592 1200