John Lewis has slow week but menswear and own-brand womenswear rise

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 4, 2019

It was another sluggish week at John Lewis Partnership in the seven days to June 1, with overall sales down 1.9% to just under £211 million.

Waitrose supermarkets were down less than 1%, which means that the fall at the John Lewis department stores chain was wider. In fact, sales there fell 3.5%, which is quite a large drop for a division that usually performs more strongly.

The company blamed the impact of warm weather, although given that the weather was even warmer this time last year, that seems a little hard to understand. It also said that a year ago it was price-matching competitor activity and didn’t repeat that this year, so that would have dented sentiment.

It all meant that the fashion department, which is usually the strongest part of the business, fell slightly (by 0.6%). That said, menswear had an impressive week with a 14% rise and the company's own-brand womenswear was up a reasonably healthy 3.1%.

As usual, the Home department saw lower sales, although the fall was only 1.4% this time. However furniture and flooring sales were up 6.5% as customers took advantage of carpet promotions. Gifting sales were up 5.5%, primarily driven by sales of candles and its Find Keep Give gifting range.