John Lewis caps bad week for high street

John Lewis yesterday brought the curtain down on a torrid week for the retail sector as it revealed a fall in its weekly sales.

The employee-owned group said sales at its department store business slipped 3.8 per cent year-on-year in the week to 26 March. It followed "challenging" comparisons with a year earlier and reduced footfall due to the warmer weather.

Its Glasgow store suffered one of the sharpest declines, with sales down by 11.3 per cent. Edinburgh recorded a 2.1 per cent dip while Aberdeen enjoyed a modest 1.5 per cent lift.

Paula Nickolds, buying director at John Lewis' home division, said: "As we enter our third trading period, we clearly need to deliver our best possible results. There are lots of opportunities ahead from Mother's Day, Easter and the royal wedding."

Across the first eight weeks of the group's trading year, department store sales were up by 0.8 per cent, compared with a year earlier.

The figures followed downbeat soundings from a number of big high street names earlier in the week, including Currys-owner Dixons Retail, Mothercare and Laura Ashley.

IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said: "The latest John Lewis sales fuel concerns over the deteriorating health of the UK consumer. There has been a worrying stream of retailers recently reporting more difficult trading conditions in the first quarter of 2011.

"Consumers appear to be reining in their spending appreciably as their purchasing power is squeezed by high and rising inflation in tandem with ongoing muted wage growth overall."