School holidays blamed for 10 per cent fall in Waitrose sales

WAITROSE, the upmarket grocery arm of John Lewis, has reported aslump in sales, blaming the timing of school holidays for a 10.7 percent weekly decline.

The 187-strong chain, which is poised to increase its Scottishpresence beyond its two existing Edinburgh stores, described theseven days trading to last Saturday as "a difficult week all round".

The year-on-year fall compares with a 4.6 per cent downturn theweek before and a 27.6 per cent surge in the week to 22 March.

John Lewis Partnership is unique among its retail peers inpublishing weekly bulletins - most of its rivals produce monthly orquarterly updates.

Although the figures can throw up weekly anomalies, they are seenas a useful indicator of broader trends on the British high street.

Waitrose supply chain director Mark Williamson said the laterschool holidays had impacted on the year-on-year performance of manybranches.

At the 26-strong John Lewis department store chain, sales were up2 per cent in the week to 5 April. Poor weather boosted interest inindoor products, including televisions, which notched up a 14 percent rise.

As well as a 52 per cent hike in overall sales at John Lewis'internet arm, the partnership said its stores in Aberdeen andLondon's Oxford Street performed particularly well.

However, the group warned that it faced "very challenging"trading for the rest of this year and possibly into 2009.

Staff at John Lewis and Waitrose recently celebrated the award ofone-fifth of their salary as an annual bonus.

For Graohs: see e-pages