John Lewis fashion soars as new line debuts and name changes

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 4, 2018

John Lewis Partnership had plenty of news on Tuesday as it unveiled its latest set of weekly figures, officially launched its new fashion collection and also changed the name of its two chains to John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners, to reflect the unique ownership structure of the company.

The new names were unveiled on the facades of John Lewis’s refurbished flagship shop on Oxford Street, as well as at other London branches of John Lewis and Waitrose, plus its webstore and on items like carrier bags and internal signage.

The full identity change to all 348 Waitrose and 50 John Lewis shop facades and the combined fleet of 3,500 lorries and vans is being phased over a number of years to tie in with refurbishment plans.

The new fashion collection, which it had announced several months ago, launched in-store on Tuesday too with a collection of 300 designs created in-house and carrying the new John Lewis & Partners name. 

And the retailer also launched its first own-brand gifting collection called ‘Find Keep Give’. The range is comprised of “unique pieces”, the majority of which were also designed in-house.

The debuts of the collections came as JLP also reported its latest weekly sales figures with the overall company seeing sales down 0.1% to £218.34 million in the seven days to last Saturday.

But the John Lewis chain itself saw its sales rising 4.5%, driven in part by a strong bank holiday performance and new seasonal launches.

Fashion sales were up an impressive 11.4% and sales in womenswear shot up by a stunning 21.7% as customers shopped new pieces for the changing season. Womenswear accessories were also up 10%.

Even Home sales, which have lagged in recent periods, were up 2.1%, driven by new season sales and its Off to University shop, which “continues to do well”.