Solid increase in John Lewis sales as Clearance begins

A solid 7.2% sales increase on last year delivered ‘the highest ever weekly sterling take in the first half year’, for John Lewis.

The department store group said a combination of Clearance markdowns and full price trade ‘drove a great all-round performance’ with sales climbing to £81.59m in the week to June 22.

The Electricals and Home Technology performance grew 11.7% on the year and Home delivered a sales increase of 3.6%, with furniture providing a fantastic result seeing sales up 17.6% driven by increases across reduced, Special Buy and full price lines.

By channel, johnlewis.com had a ‘stand out result’ at 20.7% up. Click & collect saw orders up 46% year on year. Across the shops, five branches delivered double-digit increases in the first days of Clearance. Stratford was at the top with Norwich, Tamworth, Leicester and Milton Keynes not far behind.