John Lewis sales rise despite weak consumer confidence

Trading had been up seven per cent until Saturday dragged down the weekly average to leave a year-on-year rise of 2.6 per cent at £53.4m, or up one per cent excluding VAT.

The retailer, which has 32 stores, said the performance was encouraging amid signs of faltering consumer confidence and following a period of stock market turbulence and changeable weather conditions.

Sales at its Sheffield store dropped 5.1 per cent.

The figures come a day after The Co-operative, which is the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer, reported a 10 per cent decline in half-year underlying profits and its chief executive Peter Marks said conditions were the worst he had known in 40 years.

John Lewis said key to its resilient trading was the performance of its online business, which saw sales growth of 33 per cent. Its Oxford Street store was the top performing branch, with a sales rise of 5.2 per cent, followed by Solihull and Glasgow.

Electrical and home technology sales were up 7.7 per cent, with tablets out-selling desktop PCs for the first time, while fashion sales were up 4.4 per cent with new brands driving much of the growth, and home sales down 1.7 per cent.

Kate Calvert, a retail analyst at Seymour Pierce stockbrokers, said it had been an encouraging week for the chain given the “doom and gloom” news.