John Lewis cooks up sales growth thanks to homeware goods
JOHN LEWIS said a rush for roasting tins and carving trays helped drive sales last week up 1.4 per cent on last year to £149.9m.
But this growth has slowed from a whopping 11 per cent year-on-year rise in 2012, which one analyst said could be a symptom of a patchy performance on the high street this Christmas.
The group’s home department achieved a record week, buoyed by the sales of kitchen accessories.
Sales in the week to 14 December compared with the previous week were up 3.7 per cent while online sales, which have been driving growth at the retailer in the run up to Christmas, were up 13.2 per cent on the same period in 2012.
John Lewis said that the book telling the story behind the bear and the hare characters from its TV ad campaign has become its most popular children’s title.
“For a second successive week, John Lewis reported reasonable but unspectacular sales figures in their latest weeks trading, which maintains uncertainty as to just how good Christmas this will be for retailers,” IHS Global Insight’s chief economist Howard Archer said yesterday.