John Lewis sales fall, fashion down but own-brands, shoes are strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 11, 2018

John Lewis Partnership had released plenty of exciting news last week around its chains' name changes, its Oxford Street makeover and new product launches, but the company’s sales figures were less exciting with a 3.8% drop to £211.27 million.

The John Lewis (& Partners) chain itself saw a slightly worse 4% fall in the seven days to last Saturday but the company said it saw strong sales of its new own-brand ranges “which were supported by the launch of our new brand identity in shops and online.”

In a rare week for the Fashion directory, sales here fell 3.9%. John Lewis almost always reports higher fashion sales in its weekly announcements so this was a shock. However, it said that it enjoyed “very strong demand for our new John Lewis & Partners womenswear collection and shoe sales were up 8% on last year,” presumably as consumers started buying for the autumn season.

Its Home directory continued to struggle, this time with a 7% drop in sales. But its contemporary own-brand House had a record week with sales up 10.5% on last year. And there was strong demand for its new gifting range, Find Keep Give, as well as its new plant gift range Little Botanicals.