John Lewis festive sales surge 9.3%

John Lewis secured its place in the festive winners’ camp yesterday after posting a sharp rise in takings over the Christmas trading period, writes Scott Reid.

Strong demand for clothing, beauty products and electrical gadgets helped fuel a 9.3 per cent year-on-year hike in sales to £596 million in the five weeks to Hogmanay.

Online revenues soared 27.9 per cent, boosted by a near doubling in the number of shoppers using the group’s click and collect service, while like-for-like sales, which exclude store openings, were up by 6.2 per cent.

Among the strongest sellers during the period were Apple iPad tablets and Kindle ebook readers, as well as cashmere sweaters and bedding and linen items. Managing director Andy Street described the sales performance during the four weeks to Christmas Eve as “outstanding”.

He said: “During that period, we broke the record for our biggest week ever with a total of £133.1m for the week ending 17 December. The first week of clearance saw a very strong start, but against the pre-VAT increase week in 2010, it was always going to be a challenge to match sales, particularly with ‘big ticket’ items.”

The employee-owned retailer saw sales fall 4.8 per cent in the week after Christmas as it came up against strong comparisons with the year before, when people rushed to make major purchases ahead of the hike in VAT to 20 per cent.

There was no store breakdown provided in the trading update.