A sharp rise in sales at high-end food retailer Waitrose helped John Lewis to post better than expected first-half profits.
The employee-owned partnership, which has 39 John Lewis department stores and 294 Waitrose supermarkets, recorded sales of £4.3 billion in the six months to July 27, a 7.3% increase, after strong performances from the company's online divisions.
Waitrose recorded gross sales of £3.02 billion, an increase of 7.8%, with like-for-like sales excluding petrol up 6.9%.
According to the retailer, 'A large proportion of this uplift is attributable to strong volume growth'.
'Operating profit grew ahead of sales, slightly exceeding our expectations for the first half, up by 12.8% to £160.2m'.
'Customer transactions grew by 9.3% in the first half. There are more than 5.1m customer visits each week and over 2.5m customers now hold a myWaitrose card'.
'Carefully targeted and personalised offers and deals, together with free tea and coffee and regular discounts on every day staples, have helped strengthen our customer relationships and drive volume', the retailer added.
'Waitrose has outperformed the market for over four years and our market share now stands at 4.9 per cent, 0.3 per cent higher than a year ago'.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis Partnership, commented, "I am particularly pleased that both Waitrose and John Lewis again increased their market shares significantly during the first half."
He added, "Year-on-year, we grew our customer numbers by 6%, helped especially by initiatives such as myWaitrose and our market leading omni-channel offer in John Lewis."
© 2013 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine by Ellen Lunney
