TIDM45GD
RNS Number : 5483B
Lewis(John) PLC
11 January 2018
John Lewis Partnership Christmas trading statement for six weeks
ending
30 December 2017
Thursday 11 January 2018
Trading highlights include:
-- Gross sales at the John Lewis Partnership were up 2.5% versus last year to GBP1,962m(1)
-- Waitrose gross sales (excluding fuel) were GBP928m, up 1.4% versus last year and up 1.5% on a like-for-like basis. Unlike last year's trading update, these numbers exclude New Year's Eve. If included like-for-like sales would be up an estimated 2.2%
-- John Lewis gross sales were GBP1,034m, up 3.6% versus last
year and up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis and significantly
outperformed the market by 4.5%(2)
-- Black Friday was John Lewis's most successful sales day in
its history and contributed to the biggest ever week of sales, up
7.2% year-on-year
-- 65.5% of John Lewis Click & collect sales collected from
Waitrose stores, an increase of 0.9%pts compared to last year
Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership,
said: "We traded well during the Christmas period, with gross sales
in the six weeks to 30 December GBP1,962m, up 2.5% on last year,
with 1.4% sales growth in Waitrose and 3.6% in John Lewis. This was
due to the exceptional hard work and commitment of our Partners. We
focused on our differentiated product offering, attention to
service and strong value proposition, underpinned by our Never
Knowingly Undersold promise.
The pressure on margin seen in the first half of the year has
intensified because of our choice to maintain competitive prices,
despite higher costs mainly due to the weaker exchange rate. This
will negatively affect full-year financial results as indicated
previously.
Looking ahead to 2018/19 we expect trading to be volatile due to
the economic environment and anticipate that competitive intensity
will continue, driven by the structural changes taking place in the
retail industry. We are well placed to continue building the
strength of our two leading brands through these changes and will
maintain our current investment plans. Our focus continues to be
offering our customers the best range of products and the best
value, supported by a market leading service.
As usual, Bonus will be decided in March. The Board expect to
continue their policy of strengthening the balance sheet and
maintaining investment for the future. As indicated at the half
year, we expect our Debt ratio(3) at January 2018 to be higher than
last year's four times. Over the long-term, we continue to target a
Debt ratio of around three times."
Waitrose
Waitrose achieved like-for-like sales growth, up 1.5%, in a
market which continues to be highly competitive with industry
margins under pressure. Including the impact of New Year's Eve
trade, which this year falls outside the reported period, total
like-for-like sales are up an estimated 2.2%. Our online business
performed very strongly achieving the biggest week of sales in its
history.
Our overall sales performance this Christmas is testament to the
strength of our brands and to the dedication and hard work of our
Partners. Thanks to them we were able to create a real festive buzz
in our branches. For example, we doubled the number of tastings in
our branches for some of our innovative new products, such as our
Chocolate and Ginger Mince Pies. Our one-day-only offers were also
very successful and drove footfall.
We launched 500 new festive products - for example our new
Heston Citrus Sherbert Lazy Gin sold a month's worth of stock in
one day and sales of our premium range Waitrose 1 products were up
by 4.2% in volume.
John Lewis
John Lewis significantly outperformed the market again this
year, building on last year's strong peak trading performance
despite the challenging, highly promotional trading
environment.
Our inspiring Christmas proposition, innovative product
assortment and competitive position on price helped us to build
sales momentum across the period. We also offered customers popular
shop experiences including my John Lewis customer Christmas events
which saw a 15% increase in attendance and an 18% uplift in sales
compared to last year. Across the three product areas there was a
particularly good performance in Fashion up 4.9%, and EHT up 5.0%
while Home was down 0.3% as customers were more cautious about
bigger purchases for their homes.
Our continued participation in Black Friday underpinned our
commitment to price matching through our Never Knowingly Undersold
policy. The Black Friday week was the busiest in our history and
included a record hour for online trade. In the lead up to
Christmas, our strong operational performance allowed us to respond
to record demand and extend our Click & collect cut off in John
Lewis shops to 23 December for pick up on Christmas Eve.
John Lewis Partnership plc will report its full year results
ending 27 January 2018 on 8 March 2018.
Enquiries
For further information please contact:
John Lewis Partnership
Simon Fowler, Director of Communications, 07710 398460
Sarah Henderson, Group Senior External Communications Manager,
07764 676036
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Simon Rigby / Jos Bieneman, 020 7638 9571
John Lewis
Gillian Taylor, Head of External Communications, 07919
057931
Katie Robson, Senior External Communications Manager, 07764
675608
Waitrose
Christine Watts, Communications Director, 07764 676414
Graeme Buck, Head of Communications, 07703 379561
Debt investors
Alan Drew, Head of Treasury & Corporate Finance, 07525
582955
Lynn Lochhead, Deputy Head of Treasury, 07834 770684
Notes to editors
The John Lewis Partnership operates 49 John Lewis shops across
the UK, johnlewis.com, 352 Waitrose shops, waitrose.com and
business to business contracts in the UK and abroad. The business
has annual gross sales of over GBP11bn. It is the UK's largest
example of an employee-owned business where all 84,000 staff are
Partners in the business.
Waitrose has 352 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the
Channel Islands, including 66 convenience branches, and another 27
shops at Welcome Break locations. It combines the convenience of a
supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop -
dedicated to offering quality food that has been responsibly
sourced, combined with high standards of customer service. Waitrose
also exports products to 58 countries worldwide and has eight shops
which operate under licence in the Middle East. Waitrose's
omnichannel business includes the online grocery service,
waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including
waitrosecellar.com for wine, waitroseflorist.com for plants and
flowers and waitrosegifts.com for gifts. In recent months, Waitrose
has been awarded the much-coveted European-wide Compassion in World
Farming 'Best Retailer Award', Soil Association's 'Best Organic
Supermarket Award 2017' and The Drinks Business' 'Retail Buying
Team of the Year Award'.
John Lewis operates 49 John Lewis shops across the UK (35
department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras
International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com.
John Lewis, 'Best In-Store Experience 2017', 'Best Furniture
Retailer 2017', 'Best Homewares Retailer 2017'* stocks around
350,000 separate lines in its department stores and johnlewis.com
across fashion, home and technology. Johnlewis.com is consistently
ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK. John
Lewis Insurance offers a range of comprehensive insurance products
- home, car, wedding and event, travel and pet insurance and life
cover - delivering the values of expertise, trust and customer
service expected from the John Lewis brand.
* Verdict Consumer Satisfaction Awards 2017
You can follow John Lewis on the following social media
channels:
www.johnlewis.com/twitter
www.johnlewis.com/facebook
www.johnlewis.com/youtube
(1) The six week period this year runs from 19 November to 30
December 2017. Last year's six week trading period was to 31
December 2016.
(2) British Retail Consortium (BRC)
(3) The Debt ratio is a measure of the Partnership's total net
debts (including pension deficit and a measure for operating lease
commitments) relative to its cash flow. For definition see page 9
of our 2017 Annual Report and Accounts.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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