John Lewis sales plummet as High Street suffers

John Lewis has added to the woes of the retailing industry by announcing that sales fell by 8.3% last week, which represents one of the worst trading weeks of the year, and followed the 5.6% drop recorded the previous week.

Sales fell at all but one of its stores that have been open for over 12 months.

John Lewis, which owns the Waitrose supermarket chain as well as the renowned employee-owned department stores, said the drop in sales was due to last week’s good weather and the doom and gloom on the financial markets which has knocked consumer confidence.

Interim results from the company showed that Waitrose is struggling as hard-pressed consumers change to cheaper alternatives. Sales at the upmarket chain of supermarkets were down 0.7% in the week to September 27to £73.6 million.

Meanwhile, individual stores recorded some large falls with sales at Southampton and Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway down by nearly 25% compared with the previous year.

Dan Knowles, director of selling operations, described the current market as tough.

However, the company said that fitted kitchens, large electrical goods and flooring performed well as customers improved their homes rather than moving.

However, the home division continued to suffer as a result of the housing market slowdown, with sales falling by 13.3% in the week to September 27.

Meanwhile, fashion sales were down 6% and electricals and home technology fell 7.2%.

The news follows that from Marks & Spencer who yesterday said like-for-like sales had declined 6.1% in the 13 weeks to 27 September, compared with a fall of 5% in the previous quarter.

The retailing industry has suffered this week after Hardy Amies, the Savile Row tailor and former dressmaker to the Queen, confirmed it is to call in the administrators after a rescue finance package failed.

Meanwhile, Sixty UK, the company that runs both the Miss Sixty and Energie fashion labels, has put its retail stores into administration.

Clothing and homeware chain Joy, and furnishings and curtain chain, Rosebys, were both been placed into administration earlier this week, while furniture giant MFI was rescued from the brink of collapse by a management buyout.

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