“No physical stores overseas”
Managing director Andy Street announced that 2013 will be a year full of overseas investments, but without opening physical stores abroad. There will however be new webshops: before the end of the year John Lewis wants to open up separate stores for France and Germany.
After a “very successful try-out” with
South-Korean Shinsegae, the group is on the lookout for partnerships with other
department stores: “There are future opportunities to partner with other
prestigious department stores around the world through that wholesale model”,
says Andy Street.
Quarter of sales online
John Lewis, which opened up seven new locations
in the past fourteen months, has had a great year: comparable sales grew by 10.5%,
while total sales rose by 13.5% to 3.05 billion pound (approximately 3.5
billion euro) and operational profits soared by 37.2% to 216.7 million pound (250 million euro).
Mainly online sales are on the fast track,
going up by 41%. At the moment e-commerce amounts to about a quarter of total
sales at John Lewis. The strongest growing segment is electronics and technology (+29%), followed by
fashion (+9%) and home decoration (+6%).
Andy Street sees an explanation for the
positive results in the current crisis: the consumers look for brands they know
and trust and they choose for retailers they can rely on for years to come.
