John Lewis Partnership Performs Well

Date Published:10/02/2012

After good trading in its supermarkets and department stores, the John Lewis Partnership has seen sales increase 10.2% year-on-year. Sales across the group totalled £160.92m for the seven days to 4th February, and its grocery chain, Waitrose, performed particularly well. An increase of spending on “warming” foods boosted trade by 12.3% year-on-year to a total of £108.45m.

The marketing director for Waitrose, Rupert Thomas, said, “Customers stocked up on store cupboard staples including long-life milk, up 24%, canned soup, up 30%, and hot beverages, up 17%…Cooks turned their hands to hearty meals at home, with stewing meats up 52% on last year and slow cooked meats up by a massive 220%”. Sales of sausages and speciality bacon increased, each rising around 200%.

Department store, John Lewis, reported that seasonal gift sales were up 41.6%, compared to the same period last year, with the company benefiting from the sale of Valentine’s Day gifts. David Barford, selling operation director for Region B, said, “The start of a new year and week one, albeit decidedly chilly, saw us deliver a good performance overall with a 6% uplift on last year.

“We had three branches with very good double-figure increases. A very big well done to Croydon with an increase on last year of 19.1%, followed by Poole at 17.4% and Southampton with 13.1%”. The company’s online trading increased 28.5%, and home sales increased 1.2%. The partnership opened two new Waitrose stores during the week – a full-sized supermarket in Preston and a Little Waitrose convenience store in Ipswich.