John Lewis Partnership plc annual report and accounts 2012

Business review Review of performance (continued)

John Lewis

 John Lewis grew sales against the background of a challenging market and a changing retail non- food environment.

Gross sales were up by £97.4m, 3.0% to £3.33bn and like-for-like sales grew by 1.3%.

Sales excluding VAT were up £28.1m (1.0%) to £2.79bn, while like-for-like sales excluding VAT were 0.6% down. During 2011/12 all three Directorates, Fashion, Home and Electrical & Home Technology (EHT), improved their performance on the previous year’s results.

Sales per square foot decreased by 2.8%, from £691 to £672, but sales per selling FTE increased by 3.9%, from £157,100 to £163,200.

The success of “bricks and clicks” has been an important element of the John Lewis total sales growth. Online trade continued to perform strongly, up +24.2% excluding VAT against a market that is estimated to have grown by 13.5% excluding VAT, and is now fully integrated into the John Lewis multi channel operations. At the year end, ‘Click & collect’ was available in all 35 John Lewis shops and 94 Waitrose branches, and is the fastest growing fulfilment route as customers appreciate the convenience it offers. Shopping by mobile phone is growing rapidly and currently two thirds of our shops have free WiFi to enable customers to check prices as they shop.

During the year John Lewis launched more new products than ever before, spanning over 30 new brand introductions, new own brand ranges, and more designer collaborations. John Lewis also continued to transform presentation in Fashion, Home and EHT. Three quarters of the shop fit in Stratford was new concept and John Lewis extended this to the ‘at home’ stores that opened in Newbury and Chichester in April 2012 and will be extending this to existing shops and to the first smaller format department store opening in Exeter in October 2012, which will be our most integrated multi- channel shop. The johnlewis.com website will be fully upgraded during 2012.

John Lewis is the Official Department Store Provider to this year’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is looking forward to the important part to be played in the future of Stratford as a vibrant retail centre in London.

Graph showing John Lewis Gross sales (£m)

Graph showing John Lewis Sales excluding VAT (£m)

Graph showing John Lewis Sales excluding VAT per square foot (selling space) (£)

Graph showing John Lewis Sales excluding VAT per selling FTE (£’000)

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