John Lewis rings up ‘decent’ sales gains

John Lewis has reported an 8.4 per cent rise in sales as a cool, damp half-term week south of the Border provided “ideal shopping conditions”.

The fresh hike in weekly takings to £67.6 million was described by analysts as “decent”.

Department stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow were among the employee-owned group’s best performers with sales rises of 8.1 per cent and 13.2 per cent, respectively.

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The chain said in-store trading had tailed off at the weekend. Its johnlewis.com website saw sales rise 17.2 per cent over the week.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at forecasting group IHS Global Insight, said: “Decent John Lewis weekly sales follow on from an encouraging British Retail Consortium survey for May. This provides some reassurance on consumer spending.”

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