John Lewis upbeat as Easter week shines for fashion and beauty

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 4, 2018

John Lewis Partnership total sales rose 21% to almost £253 million in the seven days to the end of March as Easter gave it a big boost. And with Waitrose supermarkets factored-out, the John Lewis chain itself fared even better. The department stores unit was up an impressive 24.1% year-on-year.

Why the big leap? The company said it was due to a combination of the earlier Easter timing this year, of cold weather driving shoppers into its stores and of its own significant promotional activity.

That's all very interesting, especially given the fact that footfall to stores generally in Britain was down over the Easter period. But it’s significant that while high streets suffered the most, under-cover shopping centres were rather more buoyant and John Lewis appears to have benefited from this.

Unusually though, Fashion was for once the lowest performing directory. Not that it did badly last week as overall sales were up 17.7%. The Beauty, Wellbeing and Leisure category saw the biggest increase with sales up 26.3% compared to the same week last year.

All clothing categories experienced a strong increase in sales due to the cold weather driving sales of warm clothing and the company price-matching competitor promotions.

And in a particular piece of good news, Home sales were up 23.1%. The directory has seen slumbering sales in recent periods with more falls in revenue than John Lewis would be comfortable with. 

Its Gifts, Cook and Dine sub-category produced the strongest sales with a 41.5% increase on the same week last year. It was a record first-half week for Gift Food sales and the retailer also saw very strong sales of bath and bedding products, lighting, and Living & Dining furniture.