Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Total sales for John Waitrose for the week ending Saturday (February 4) totalled £74.4m, up 5.4% year-on-year.
The department store group’s trading director Ed Connolly described the result as “a good week’s trade, as we enter the new financial year and new season collections begin to land”.
Home posted the strongest sales increase, up 8.8% on last year. The growth was focused on ‘big ticket’ products such as furniture, with beds and fitted furniture particularly strong.
EHT (Electricals & Home Technology) also performed well, up 7.2% year-on-year. Audio was particularly strong at 11%. Communications tech saw growth from tablets and computers, along with mobile phones.
Fashion was also up at 1.6% year-on-year. Beauty drove sales here, with the category (which includes Wellbeing and Leisure) posting a 7.2% increase and brands such as MAC and Charlotte Tilbury proving popular.
Ed said: “Shops where we invested in new beauty halls last year performed particularly well. Our new ‘modern rarity’ Spring/Summer collection came in this week, and helped womenswear to post a 3.4% increase.”
