Home sales down 9.3% at John Lewis

Total sales at John Lewis & Partners were down 2.5% last week (to Saturday January 25) compared with the same week last year.

The department store group’s operations director Bérangère Michel commented: “Home sales were down 9.3%, as the end of our Clearance sale coincided with a number of competitors running promotions. However, we saw strong sales of new Spring/Summer ranges, which we began to introduce in shops and online at the end of last week.

“Electrical and home technology sales were up 1.1% due to customers continuing to buy new computers and tablets as a result of Windows 7 reaching its ‘End of Life’.

“Fashion sales were up 0.4%. Market changes drove strong sales of nursery products, sending childrenswear, nursery and haberdashery sales up 4.8%. And beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales were up 1.4% due to us price-matching a competitor promotion on beauty products.”