Sales soar at John Lewis

THE build-up to Mother’s day and the launch of the new iPad helped department store John Lewis post record sales figures last week.

The group said sales topped £63 million, a record for a week in March and 20.9 per cent higher than the equivalent week last year.

Paula Nickolds, buying director for John Lewis’ home division, said: “The week saw the build-up for Mother’s Day, with some excellent promotional displays in store and online showing off the best of our gifting assortments across categories.”

She said the launch of the i-pad also boosted sales after the group “worked hard” to ensure it was well stocked with the new devices.

The online store once more led the way, with sales up 58.2 per cent year-on-year, but the Scottish stores also enjoyed sales growth.

Aberdeen was up 7.7 per cent, Edinburgh was ahead 7.1 per cent and the Glasgow store saw sales rise 5.6 per cent.