John Lewis again relies on fashion to drive sales

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 23, 2018

Market conditions don’t appear to be getting any better for John Lewis Partnership as the company again reported a sales dip in the latest week. In the seven days to October 20, sales edged down 0.9% to a little less than £212 million.

And the John Lewis & Partners chain lagged even more with a 1.2% sales drop as few master categories shone. However, at least Fashion wasn’t one of the under-performers with that directory’s sales rising a respectable 3.3%.

That increase came as own-brand fashion sales rose by 5.6% "due to the popularity of new ranges.” Sales were also boosted by the company price matching a competitor promotion through its Never Knowingly Undersold policy. Of course, the problem with this is that lots of rivals are cutting prices at the moment and with John Lewis following suit, it’s not good news for profit margins.

Also bad news was the fact that overall Home sales were down 4.9%. However, sales of fitted furniture were up 38% and fitted flooring sales were up 8%. It also saw strong sales of lighting and pictures, and sales of Halloween products rose 6%.

Electrical and Home Technology sales were down 1.8%. Demand for new products helped drive Audio sales up 7% and sales of Small Electricals up 11%.