Home leads the way in sales at John Lewis last week, jumping by over 15%

Home sales set a new record for the third successive week after climbing by 16.3% in the week to 17 December. Sales for the 20 week period were up 2.6%.

'All of the At Home shops that have been open for over 12 months bettered last year's scores and outperformed the like-for-like department stores in the process. Furniture also performed strongly,' says Andrew Murphy, John Lewis' retail director.

'The division's strong peak performance continued with our best weekly sales total ever for the second week in a row. Sales totalled £133.1m, 10.6% better than last year and £10m above last week. Department stores sales were up 3.4% cent and johnlewis.com posted an incredible 42.2% rise for a record level of weekly sales, beating their latest best ever from last week. Saturday trade was especially robust against a snowy day last year.

'In a challenging year this was an outstanding achievement, both in operational terms - showing that our business is capable of meeting huge peaks of demand - and as a testament to the popularity of our brand. The financial milestone we hit last week is a recognition of the extent to which the British public want to be part of what the partnership is about and are happy to place their trust in the ability of Partners to serve them well. Seventeen branches bettered last year, with Croydon and Cardiff leading, closely followed by High Wycombe, Tunbridge Wells, Liverpool, Swindon and Brent Cross.

'A number of department store records were achieved. Peter Jones, Stratford and Knight & Lee had record days, while Peter Jones was joined by Watford and Liverpool as the shops with record weeks.'

Source : Interiors Monthly
www.interiorsmonthly.co.uk/news/190-home-leads-the-way-for-john-lewis.html