John Lewis reports strong Christmas performance

Department store John Lewis has reported a “strong” Christmas trading period, with like-for-like sales rising by 5.1 percent in the six weeks to January 2. On a total basis, sales were up 6.9 percent, compared with last year, to 951.3 million pounds.

Online sales represented 40 percent of total sales, climbing 21.4 percent on last year, and mobile continued to be the department store’s fastest-growing channel, with sales from smartphones and tablets up 31 percent. Additionally, click-and-collection continued to be strong, with sales up 16 percent and it was the delivery method of choice for half of all online orders.

The Christmas trading period saw strong sales across all three product areas of fashion, home and technology, with fashion sales increasing by 6.1 percent.

However, John Lewis did note that they were seeing significant shifts in trading patterns, which it characterised by three distinct sales peaks - Black Friday, Christmas and the clearance sale, with higher sales and a different channel mix for each peak.

John Lewis Christmas trading sales up 5.1 percent

For instance, on the Black Friday weekend, John Lewis’ distribution teams processed 18 percent more parcels than last year, which equated to five units per second during the peak hour. Sales in our shops for the total six week period were down 1.2 percent, reflecting lower footfall pre-Christmas, but were up 16.2 percent during the first week of clearance, week ending January 2.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: "Our strong Christmas trading performance gives us further confidence in the guidance provided at our interim results in September, where we indicated that we expected the full year profit before Partnership bonus, tax and exceptionals to be between 270 million pounds and 320 million pounds.

"This guidance reflected both good operational progress but also an increase of approximately 60 million pounds in pension charges as a result of market-driven volatility. Our guidance, therefore, unchanged."

Overall, the John Lewis Partnership, including Waitress, rose 4.1 percent in the six weeks to January 2, compared to the same period last year to 1,811.1 million pounds.

Images: John Lewis