Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Total sales at John Lewis for last week (to Saturday May 13) were £74.1m, up 1.3% on last year.
Barry Matheson, the department store group’s head of shop trade for Scotland & the North, reported that Home had a “good week” of sales, up 5.3% year on year.
He added: “Furniture in particular performed well, up 18.1%, driven by double digit growth across both fitted furniture and beds.
“Cookshop and cutlery also both had positive weeks, with sales rising by 5.9% and 4.4% respectively, and lighting had a beaming week, up 9.1%.”
EHT (Electricals & Home Technology) also saw sales grow, by 3.3%. Barry commented: “Mobile and photography continues to perform strongly, up a huge 47.4%, with sales of GoPros performing particularly well as customers equip themselves ahead of the summer months to get the best footage on their holidays. Vision was also up, by 6.8%, driven by sales of higher-end products.”
In contrast, Fashion was down 2.8%, because higher temperatures drove warm weather clothing sales in the year-ago period.
Beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales, however, were up 8.2% fuelled by strong sales across beauty. Women’s formal wear also had a good week, seeing sales rise by 12.8%.
