Sunny Saturday ends John Lewis profit run

August 14, 2009

John Lewis has just reported that it has broken a three weak run of positive sales with a drop in weekly sales across its department stores for the week to August 8th. The company announced that profits were down 5.3% across its 27 stores.

John Lewis claims that it usually does better this time of year if the weather is cool and has blamed a hot sunny Saturday, at least in part, for the fall in numbers.

Andy Street, John Lewis’ Managing Director said that he wasn’t surprised by the fall off in trade on Saturday recognizing that after a string of wet weekends the sun was always going to be too much of a draw.

Pali International analyst Nick Bubb sees no reason to panic about the fall in sales saying:”This dip looks like a blip, and we expect John Lewis to be up again over the next two weeks when the comps (comparative numbers) are soft — everyone was too busy watching Team GB in the Olympics on TV last year to go shopping,” he said.

John Lewis also runs the Waitrose supermarket chain and their sales were up 10.9% on last year. The Saturday sun which was bad for John Lewis saw an increase in sales of barbeque and picnic food at Waitrose.

Thanks to www.nytimes.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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Written by Alf Merrywaters · Filed Under Business, Shopping 

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