DIYWEEK.net

...And early indications show H2 shaping up to be another period of growth for the unstoppable retailer, as chairman Charlie Mayfield reveals gross sales are already 10% up on last year for the first six weeks.
Looking back on the six months to July 28, 2012, gross sales across the group were up 8.7%, with John Lewis stores growing sales by nearly 13%.

Sales increases at both John Lewis and Waitrose (which saw a sales boost of 6.6%) were attributed to the period's one-off events including the Jubilee, the lead up to London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and the anniversary of the VAT increase, which depressed sales last year.

Multi-channel development was also a massive contributor towards the partnership's success, said Mr Mayfield.

Electricals and home technology were credited with boosting John Lewis' gross sales up to £1.6bn, a like-for-like growth of 9.2%. Operating profit grew by 188.5% to £45.6m. Home sales increased by 6.2%, while EHT stormed ahead with sales up 31.8%.

Johnlewis.com had another strong half, growing sales by over 40% and now accounts for 24% of total John Lewis sales.

"Our multi-channel operation continues to go from strength-to-strength, with customers appreciating the ease of shopping across a variety of channels from smartphones to in-store internet kiosks," said Mr Mayfield. "'Click & collect' continues to be extremely popular ... year-on-year [this service] has grown by 114%."

Looking ahead, Mr Mayfield added that retailer continued to see opportunities to grow market share and had already seen a good start to the second half. After six weeks, partnership gross sales are 10.3% higher than last year. Waitrose gross sales are up by 8.7% (+4.5% like-for-like) and John Lewis gross sales are 13.1% higher than last year (+8.5% like-for-like).