Sales at the John Lewis Partnership slid for the latest week (ending 17 August 2019), hurt by weakness at both its chains, which it attributed to the recent gloomy and mixed weather.
For the week, total sales were down 2.4% year-on-year to £200.20m, pushing sales for the 29 weeks of the current fiscal year down by 0.9% year-on-year.
At Waitrose, sales (excl. fuel) were down 2.1% y-o-y (year to date sales down 0.7%), hurt by a 7.3% drop in Home & General Merchandise, as well as 1.8% decline in the Ambient category. Waitrose also registered a 1.8% decline in the Chilled, fruit, veg & hort, bakery, meat, fish, frozen, dairy category.
During the week, sales of home baking products were up 9%, prompted by the upcoming The Great British Bake Off, while free-from sales were up 15%.
Meanwhile, the John Lewis chain saw sales slide by 2.8% (YTD -1.4%), as a 5.9% drop in Home and a 4.3% slide in Fashion offset a 1.3% uptick in Electricals & Home Technology. Interestingly, sales of the House by John Lewis range were up 15%, as students prepare to go to university next month.
