John Lewis reports most successful sales day in history on Black Friday

Black Friday, which fell on 24 November, also saw the group record its busiest ever hour for online trading

Sales in the six weeks ending 30 December across the whole partnership – which includes the department stores as well as Waitrose – hit £1.96bn

The John Lewis Partnership celebrated its most successful sales day in history on Black Friday 2017, helping the retailer achieve its best ever week.

On Thursday the group said that Black Friday, which fell on 24 November last year, also saw the retailer record its busiest ever hour for online trading.

The rest of the Christmas period was similarly strong for John Lewis, with sales in the six weeks ending 30 December across the whole partnership – which includes the department stores as well as Waitrose – hitting £1.96bn, marking a 2.5 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2016.

Gross sales, excluding fuel, at Waitrose hit £928m, representing a 1.4 per cent increase on 2016. Like-for-like sales, which compare the performance of exactly the same stores, rose 1.5 per cent.

“We focused on our differentiated product offering, attention to service and strong value proposition, underpinned by our ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ promise,” said Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.

Gross sales across the partnership were just over £1bn, up 3.6 per cent from the previous year and up 3.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, but Sir Charlie also sounded a cautious note about the months ahead.

“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,” he said. “This will negatively affect full-year financial results as indicated previously.”

He said that for the coming financial year, he expects trading to be “volatile due to the economic environment” and anticipates that “competitive intensity will continue, driven by the structural changes taking place in the retail industry”.

The partnership is due to report full year results for the financial year ending on 27 January on 8 March.

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