The John Lewis Partnership will be posting full-year results tomorrow and eyes will be on the group’s Christmas trading and whether it was strong enough to help it turn a profit.
In September, the owner of John Lewis and Waitrose reported a deepening in its half-year loss.
This was largely a result of not passing on all costs, the cost-of-living crisis, and the unwinding of Covid shopping patterns, it said.
At the time, chair Sharon White said a successful Christmas period would be “key” for its full-year results.
Generally speaking, retailers enjoyed a strong Christmas trading period, which was good news for those with a vested interest in John Lewis ahead of its results.
Among the retailers which enjoyed a strong Christmas was competitor Marks and Spencer, which saw total sales grow by 9.7% to £3.3bn in the 13 weeks that ended 31 December.
Eye-catching was the performance of clothing and home, which posted like-for-like sales growth of 8.6%, while food was up 6.3% on a same-store basis.
While the M&S results should be good news for John Lewis, many will nervously be watching over their shoulders following industry data which predicted the publicly listed company to become larger than John Lewis by 2026.
The FTSE 250-listed retailer’s forecast compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 2.7%, compared to 1.8% growth from its employee-owned competitor.
That means the two would swap places at seventh and eighth in the rankings, according to Retail Week Prospect analysts.
Any update on the search for the permanent replacement of Pippa Wicks, who was an executive director at John Lewis, will also be looked out for in tomorrow’s results following her shock exit last month.