// John Lewis Partnership’s overall weekly sales slides 0.9% compared to last week’s 2% decline
// Waitrose weekly sales down 2.2%
// John Lewis weekly sales up 1.7%
Waitrose has once again dragged John Lewis Partnership’s overall weekly sales, although the figures were an improvement when compared on a week-on-week basis.
For the week ending May 18, the partnership’s weekly sales slid by 0.9 per cent to £201.42 million compared to the same week last year, when it came in at £203.15 million.
The latest overall weekly sales are a slight improvement on last week’s, when the parent company of Waitrose and John Lewis recorded a decrease of two per cent.
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For the company’s financial year-to-date, sales slipped by 0.7 per cent compared to the first 16 weeks of last year.
Of the partnership’s two retail fascias, John Lewis was once again the better performer as Waitrose experienced decline.
Total sales at the upmarket grocer were down 2.2 per cent for the week, although this was an improvement on last week’s decline of 3.5 per cent.
Waitrose said sales were distorted as a result of last year’s royal wedding and good weather which fell in the same week last year.
The cooler weather saw shoppers opt for warming comfort food and drink, with sales of canned soup, rotisserie chickens, vegetables and tea all rising.
Weekly sales of ambient products overall were down 1.8 per cent, fresh food and chilled products down by two per cent, while home and general merchandise sales dropped 6.5 per cent for the week.
Over at John Lewis, strong growth in the fashion department saw total sales for the week grow 1.7 per cent – another improvement on last week’s marginal increase of 0.6 per cent.
The department store attributed the performance in shops over the weekend as it annualised the impact of the royal wedding weekend last year.
Fashion sales were up 5.8 per cent, boosted by 9.5 per cent growth in beauty sales yet impeded by a nine per cent drop in warmer weather products due to the cooler temperatures in the same week last year.
Meanwhile, home sales were down 0.3 per cent, despite a 22 per cent surge in premium bedding, while the electrical and home technology department saw sales go down by 2.2 per cent.
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