John Lewis posted a rise in its weekly sales, driven by its electricals division which made up for weak performances across its fashion and homeware departments.
The department store retailer reported a 2% increase in sales year on year to £86.7m in the week to July 8 as its clearance offers continued to bolster sales.
The retailer’s star performer was its electricals and home technology department, which posted an 8.4% hike in sales driven by a 42% leap in Microsoft purchases, coinciding with the release of the Surface Pro Tablet and Surface Book products.
By contrast, the retailer’s fashion arm dropped 1.6% during the period despite its beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales increasing 4.1%.
John Lewis’ home sales posted a sluggish sales rise overall of 0.2%, although its outdoor living products delivered the strongest July sales performance to date, up 55%.
Waitrose
Stablemate Waitrose reported a 3.3% boost in sales to £133.5m as the warm weather buoyed purchases across all of the grocer’s product divisions except for home and leisure.
Picnic and barbecue staples were some of the retailer’s star performers, with sales of ice cream, quiche and halloumi up 39%, 30% and 48% respectively.
Drink sales also continued to perform well, up 25% overall as rosé wine, Pimm’s and speciality beer drove purchases.
Across the Partnership, sales grew 2.8% to £220.2m.
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