John Lewis revenue rise supported by Olympics

Clearance and the continued wet weather drove an increase in sales on markdown product and boosted footfall, also aiding a sales rise on full-price items. The department store reported sales of £70.29m in the week to 14 July 2012.

Online sales surged by 50.6% on the year, bolstered by the largest ever year-on-year growth in womenswear.

Electricals and home technology remained the strongest performer, up 37% on last year, fuelled by sales of premium products as well as regular best-sellers, the iPad and Kindle.

Homewares sales rose 8.9% on last year, helped by Olympic sales, a 23% rise in lighting sales due to the gloomy weather and the launch of a new Home Comforts range in cooking and dining.

Fashion recorded a 12.3% year-on-year increase, as menswear sales increased 15% on last year and sportswear surged 39%, with London 2012 merchandise driving the growth. In addition, the rainy weather meant that umbrellas maintained strong growth at more than 200%.

John Lewis operations director Dino Rocos said: “New product launches such as Touche Éclat foundation and Bobbi Brown BB cream kept beauty sales high, while in other fashion areas, newness drove growth as customers bought into our autumn collection. London 2012 continues to be the focus and footfall driver.”

Croydon was the strongest performing store with a 28.4% uplift in sales, while Peter Jones was the laggard, down 4%.

Total sales at Waitrose last week were 6.9% higher than last year at £108.23m, driven by more shoppers baking and cooking meals at home.

Waitrose supply director David Jones said: “Homebaking as a whole had a good week as shoppers chose to spend time in their kitchens instead of venturing out into the rain.”