Womenswear and beauty drive John Lewis sales as new fiscal year starts

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 7, 2017

The first week of John Lewis’s new financial year saw “a good week’s trade” with the seven days to February 4 seeing sales up 5.4% to £74.4m, it said on Tuesday.

The company said trade was boosted as the new season collections began to land. Its new modern rarity Spring/Summer 2017 collection came in during the week, and helped womenswear to post a 3.4% increase.

But that said, the retailer’s Fashion directory saw sales rising only 1.6% year-on-year overall and and Beauty was the key driver here. The category, which includes Wellbeing and Leisure, posted a 7.2% increase as brands such as MAC and Charlotte Tilbury proved popular.

Stores where the company invested in new beauty halls last year performed particularly well.

With womenswear and beauty up strongly, it’s clear that other categories fared worse, although the company gave no details.

Home posted the strongest sales increase at the chain, up 8.8% on last year. The growth was focused on big ticket products such as furniture, with beds and fitted furniture particularly strong.

EHT also showed strong growth and was up 7.2%. Communications tech saw growth from tablets and computers, along with mobile phones which continued to be popular with customers.