Fashion sales continue to soar at John Lewis

John Lewis has firmly proven itself to be the stalwart of the British high street, and its latest annual figures prove the store continues to outperform in a difficult market. The division’s gross sales for the year ended January 30 rose 2.8 percent to 4.56 billion pounds, or up 4.4 percent on a 52-week basis.

Both men's and women's wear saw significant increases

Fashion has done well for the department store, with sales up 6.2 percent, “confirming our strategy of combining signature own-labels, an edited selection of brands and exclusive collaborations”, the company noted. Menswear was up 8.8 percent and Womenswear rose 6.5 percent.

Of total merchandise sales, stores contributed 67 percent while online represents 33 percent. Click & collect orders grew 11 percent and account for 53 percent of online orders, while sales through mobile devices increased 34 percent and smartphones by 86 percent.

Operating profit slipped 0.1 percent to 250.2 million pounds but excluding property profits it was up 0.4 percent.

Its ‘My John Lewis’ programme increased members by 32 percent to 1.8m customers, and continued to grow, it noted.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership, said: "The Partnership has delivered a healthy trading performance and increased market shares in challenging conditions. Although Profit before tax and exceptionals was down by 10.9 percent on last year, that was entirely due to higher pension charges arising from volatility in the market-driven assumptions, and lower property profits. Excluding these, our profits were around 7 percent up on last year which, together with a strengthening balance sheet, represents good progress over the year.”