Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The John Lewis Partnership saw both sales and profit surge in the year to January 29.
Sales at the group – which includes both the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets – were up 10.6% to £8.21bn, while group operating profit also rose 10.6%, to £431.0m.
Profit before Partnership bonus and tax increased 20% to £367.9m, and Partners can now expect to receive a bonus worth 18% of salary.
Splitting down the individual results of the two brands, JLP said that the John Lewis department stores had performed well ahead of expectations, consistently beating competitors in both shops and online.
Sales enjoyed an 11.9% hike to reach £3.23bn, with like-for-like sales up 10.0% and JL.com sales up 37.9% to £538.2m. Operating profit increased 22.2% to £201.2m.
Each product category achieved strong sales growth, with home up by 12.3%, fashion by 14.7% and home and electricals & home technology up 8.4%.
The year saw the continuing rollout of the new-format John Lewis At Home stores, with openings in Croydon, Tunbridge Wells and Swindon, as well as the extension
of the Never Knowingly Undersold promise to the online business.
Meanwhile, sales at Waitrose were up 9.8% to £4.97bn, strengthened by the arrival of Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal as brand ambassadors last March. The marketing campaign featuring the celebrity cooks- across advertising, online and publications – attracted new customers and generated incremental sales of around £50m.
Commenting on the results, JLP chairman Charlie Mayfield said that the Partnership had “achieved market-beating sales growth and a healthy increase in profits”, and added that it had “clearly established itself as a leader in multi-channel retailing”.
