Casualwear and beauty help John Lewis sales to rise post-Easter

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 9, 2017

John Lewis sales returned to an upward curve in the latest week with a 2.3% rise to £82.85m as the distorting effect of Easter faded but, presumably, a public holiday on May 1 had a positive effect.

In the seven days to May 6, fashion was the strongest division for the retailer with growth of 3.9% year-on-year and casualwear continuing the powerful run we have seen in recent weeks. Across both men’s and womenswear, casualwear saw double-digit gains.

Beauty, wellbeing and leisure also had a good week, up 14.6%, with sales of premium beauty brands helping to drive the uplift.

But homewares continued their fairly tepid run of results with a 0.1% dip. The company did say though that warmer weather in the same week during 2016 had significantly driven sales of outdoor living last year.

That said, cooking and dining had a good week, with sales rising by 4.2%, and textiles and carpets also saw growth, with bedlinen in particular up 9.4%. Furniture was also up year-on-year as fitted furniture enjoyed double-digit growth.

And shoppers continued to spend money on high-end devices for their homes, helping the electrical and home technology division to a 36.4% surge. The vision department saw an uplift of 7.9%, as both Sony and LG launched new OLED televisions.