High Street retailers see falling sales
MAJOR high street retailers Laura Ashley and John Lewis both yesterday reported falls in sales over the past four months.
Home and womenswear retailer Laura Ashley said total sales fell 4.5 per cent and like-for-like sales fell 1.3 per cent in the four months to the end of May as falling real incomes and price rises deterred shoppers.
The chain has closed 19 loss-making stores and is refurbishing others to improve its sales profile. However, it said the high street environment improved in the second half of the period – and was still better than its performance at the start of 2010.
It also said online sales grew by 6.7 per cent in the 17-week period.
John Lewis, which operates both department stores and upmarket supermarket Waitrose, said its sales fell 0.8 per cent year-on-year in the week to 28 May, and by three per cent excluding VAT.
Department store sales grew just 1.3 per cent in the four months to 28 May, while excluding VAT they fell by 0.6 per cent. That was substantially below the 9.9 per cent overall group growth rate in the six months to January, IHS Global Insight chief economist Howard Archer said.
“This suggests that consumers have generally become more circumspect in their spending again after splashing out a bit in April,” he added.