Retail bellwether John Lewis Partnership has announced it will stop releasing the weekly sales figures in its new financial year, which began last Sunday.
The employee-owned department store, which includes posh supermarket chain Waitrose, has been publishing such data for the past decade giving investors and analysts a snapshot on the sector.
READ: John Lewis parts with retail boss Paula Nickolds as festive sales slump
The company added it is moving to a new financial reporting structure, after integrating upper management of John Lewis and Waitrose to operate as one business.
The weekly data will be available to its 81,500 employees for internal consumption only, Reuters reported.
Shame - have been times when seeing the weekly #JohnLewis sales data has been very useful in trying to gauge the state of #retail sales & #consumer spending. Britain's John Lewis to cease weekly sales reports https://t.co/wa1SL1qXR5
— Howard Archer (@HowardArcherUK) January 28, 2020
Sophie Lund-Yates said this announcement will not change the dial greatly.
“I will not be too worried about this, it is fairly unusual for retailers to release weekly data as it is,” she told Proactive in an email.
The news comes after a set of dismal festive sales dragging down profits “substantially” on last year, followed by the departure of managing director Paula Nickolds.