John Lewis shivers in High Street chill

Source: Daily Mail, LondonJan.倉 02--High Street bellwether John Lewis has emerged as one of the few retail winners this Christmas ? even though its sales growth halved.While its sales are still the envy of most rivals, even it could not remain immune from the chill.This will spark fears that competitors will unveil a spate of disappointing Christmas trading updates.Debenhams won the Christmas turkey award for the first profit warning of the season, blaming heavy discounting and fewer shoppers.John Lewis said the reduced excitement around tablet computers was responsible for the fall in underlying sales growth from 13pc this time last year to a still respectable 6.9pc for the five weeks to December 28.Managing director Andy Street stressed the previous year's figures had been exceptional. 'The strike rate is down on last year for one reason: last year's sales had been driven by the iPad craze,' he said. 'It was very fresh and did not have the same dynamo to growth this year.'John Lewis posted total sales of pounds sterling 734m for the period, with click & collect up 61.8pc and online up 22.6pc.By contrast, Debenhams, which said it had 'done all the right things', said its earnings from online deliveries had been 'lower than antic24小時迷你倉pated'. Chief executive Michael Sharp said the retail sector as a whole had been highly competitive with an 'unprecedented level of promotional activity'.But Street said consumers have become attuned to discounting and there would always be seasonal winners and losers. 'This Christmas was about holding your nerve on price,' he said. 'I don't believe there was poor consumer confidence or a poor trading season. We held our position on price until clearance.'Street said the shape of Christmas spending was distorted by the introduction in Britain of the American 'Black Friday' concept of one day of discounts in early December.This had zero impact on net sales, but did cause a large spike in trade in early December, taking business from the ensuing two weeks before a traditional last-minute rush.Street said: 'It concentrated trading ? no question ... But was there any net [sales] increase? Probably not.'Next is expected to show tomorrow that it has performed strongly. Marks & Spencer posts its update next week amid concerns of disappointing take-up of its new clothing ranges.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 Daily Mail (London, ) Visit the Daily Mail (London, ) at .dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉旺角