Total sales at Waitrose slipped 2.4% year-on-year over the week to 4 May, with the chain blaming cooler temperatures compared to the same period in 2018.
However, Waitrose highlighted good growth in a number of categories. Spring cleaning and promotional activity helped drive sales of household cleaning products up 47%.
Vegetarian and vegan ranges also continued to perform well with sales up 78% on last year. Meanwhile, sales of English and Welsh wines jumped 129%, malt whisky was up more than 22%, and imported whiskey grew by over 13%.
Overall, sales in the ambient category were down 0.6%, whilst sales in Chilled, Fruit, Veg & Hort., Bakery, Meat, Fish, Frozen and Dairy slipped 2.8%. Sales in the Home & General Merchandise category plummeted 9.7%.
Meanwhile, sales at sister chain John Lewis fell 2.6% as it annualised price matching a competitor event last year. However, the group stressed that it had a strong Bank Holiday weekend, with the cooler weather driving footfall to its shops.
Fashion sales were down 2.1% due to last year’s price matching activity, and home sales slid 9.1%. However, its electrical and home technology department saw sales grow 1.7%, boosted by the launch of a number of new products.
