Half-term and cold weather drives John Lewis sales up 17%

Sales at department store John Lewis rocketed 17.2% to £63.3m in the week to February 23, as half-term and cold weather helped to boost performance.

Across the first four weeks of the new financial year, sales were up by “an impressive” 16.8%.

All stores reported an uplift last week, with Nottingham rising 27%, Liverpool 25% and Trafford 26%.

John Lewis relaunched its website in the week, and managed a 20% sales uplift “despite the transition”.

Simon Russell, director, retail operations development, at John Lewis said the relaunch is a “significant milestone and a result of many months of planning and hard work by the IT and online selling teams”.

Electricals again drove overall sales, soaring 33% on last year. Vacuum cleaners, heating and tablets were the standout areas.

Home sales were up 10%, with furniture, accessories and textiles all up double-digit. Seasonal lines were “particularly strong”, with sales of Mother’s Day gifts increasing 87% and Easter ranges rising 20%.

Fashion sales also increased by 10% as the cold weather drove demand in knitwear, while new-season stock including own-brands John Lewis & Co and Kin were “strong” in menswear.

Half-term “stimulated interest in childrenswear”.

Russell added: “Mother’s Day and Easter are the key season’s focus for the next few weeks. We have some great products and are well set to continue our good start to 2013.”

Waitrose, sister retailer of John Lewis, enjoyed a 9.4% sales rise (excluding petrol) to £110.5m, with goods for cooked breakfasts and potatoes for “warming dinners” performing well in the cold weather.

Soup was among the top-performing categories, and the upmarket grocer sold 25% more pairs of tights and 38% more pairs of socks.

However, spring was also in the air last week, as sales of British daffodils increased 50%.

Online sales “continued to be strong”, rising 42%. The retailer will open its first drive-through in Cheltenham in March, followed by services in branches in Southend, Salisbury, Wolverhampton and Lincoln. Shoppers will be able to order groceries online at Waitrose.com and pick them up from a collection area in the branch car park in designated time slots.

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Audi pushes record-setting sales streak to 26 months

Audi's hot streak continued in February with the company posting its 26^th consecutive month of record-breaking sales. Combined with a strong January, Audi's United States sales are now off to the fastest start in company history.

Audi announced on Friday that its sales jumped 27.5 percent to 10,877 units in the U.S. during the month of February, setting a new monthly record for the 26^th straight time. Audi's January-February sales grew 17.2 percent to 20,993 units, marking yet another record for the German automaker.

“The consistent growth of Audi sales reflects an underlying strength in business fundamentals,” said Mark Del Rosso, Chief Operating Officer, Audi of America. “Our dealers are more motivated than ever, our product attributes have captured the attention of premium car buyers and our brand image has never been stronger.”

Audi's Q7 was the hottest seller of the month, with sales of the full-size SUV up 147 percent. Demand was also strong for Audi's compact Q5 SUV, with its sales increasing by 57 percent.

Audi is targeting 200,000 annual sales in the U.S. by 2018.

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Half-term and cold weather drives John Lewis sales up 17%

Sales at department store John Lewis rocketed 17.2% to £63.3m in the week to February 23, as half-term and cold weather helped to boost performance.

Across the first four weeks of the new financial year, sales were up by “an impressive” 16.8%.

All stores reported an uplift last week, with Nottingham rising 27%, Liverpool 25% and Trafford 26%.

John Lewis relaunched its website in the week, and managed a 20% sales uplift “despite the transition”.

Simon Russell, director, retail operations development, at John Lewis said the relaunch is a “significant milestone and a result of many months of planning and hard work by the IT and online selling teams”.

Electricals again drove overall sales, soaring 33% on last year. Vacuum cleaners, heating and tablets were the standout areas.

Home sales were up 10%, with furniture, accessories and textiles all up double-digit. Seasonal lines were “particularly strong”, with sales of Mother’s Day gifts increasing 87% and Easter ranges rising 20%.

Fashion sales also increased by 10% as the cold weather drove demand in knitwear, while new-season stock including own-brands John Lewis & Co and Kin were “strong” in menswear.

Half-term “stimulated interest in childrenswear”.

Russell added: “Mother’s Day and Easter are the key season’s focus for the next few weeks. We have some great products and are well set to continue our good start to 2013.”

Waitrose, sister retailer of John Lewis, enjoyed a 9.4% sales rise (excluding petrol) to £110.5m, with goods for cooked breakfasts and potatoes for “warming dinners” performing well in the cold weather.

Soup was among the top-performing categories, and the upmarket grocer sold 25% more pairs of tights and 38% more pairs of socks.

However, spring was also in the air last week, as sales of British daffodils increased 50%.

Online sales “continued to be strong”, rising 42%. The retailer will open its first drive-through in Cheltenham in March, followed by services in branches in Southend, Salisbury, Wolverhampton and Lincoln. Shoppers will be able to order groceries online at Waitrose.com and pick them up from a collection area in the branch car park in designated time slots.

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GM looking to boost Chevrolet Volt global sales 20% in 2013

Global sales of General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle surged dramatically last year, but the automaker is reportedly targeting a much more modest increase for 2013.
 
GM is hoping to increase sales of the Chevy Volt - which is marketed in Europe as the Opel/Vauxhall Ampera and in Australia as the Holden Volt - by 20 percent to 36,000 units this year, two sources with knowledge of the situation have revealed to Bloomberg.
 
Last year, GM sold 30,000 Volts and Amperas worldwide. Volt sales in the U.S. were up 205 percent during the twelve-month span, improving from 7,671 units in 2011 to 23,461 examples, though they still fell short of GM’s initial target of 45,000 deliveries.
 
In addition to lower than expected demand, Volt sales in 2012 were also hampered by temporary production shutdowns that made it difficult for GM to supply the plug-in hybrid to high-demand areas.
 
"We had some on and off starts with the assembly plant," said Cristi Landy, GM’s marketing director for small cars. "California, which is our strongest market, was selling great then they would have no products. They've run out of products probably three or four times in the last 12 months, it's been very frustrating.”
 
GM intends to consistently keep Volt production in the range of 1,500-3,000 units per month prevent such problems from occurring this year.

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Ditzy Docherty Makes Waves In Deutschland, Blames Ill-Informed Customers For Lack Of Chevy Sales

Yesterday, we wrote about Susan Docherty’s grand strategy for Cadillac: Make Cadillac great in Europe to convince the Chinese to buy Cadillac. Clever strategy. But what if it fails in Europe? Truts me, its European failure is assured. In the meantime, the story has landed in Europe. Germany’s premiere car dealer magazine Der Kfz-Betrieb runs with the story today (with a nice shout-out to TTAC, Danke.)

The experts at Der KFz-Betrieb give the grand Cadillac strategy only passing mention and recommend to check with TTAC if someone wants an assessment. What the magazine is most interested in are Docherty’s comments about the “lackluster performance of Chevrolet in Europe.” That grabs Deutschland’s dealers more than non-existent Caddy sales.

Docherty blames the ill-informed European customer. Docherty said that European customers know Chevrolet only for its Corvette and Camaro. “What they don’t know is the Spark and Aveo and Cruze and Orlando, and the newest one we’re about to launch, the Trax,” Docherty told WardsAuto. “Not only are we trying to raise the opinion of Chevrolet and Cadillac, we’ve got to increase the overall awareness.” Again, another laser-sharp Dochertanian observation.

Right on, says Kfz Betrieb: “German Opel and Chevrolet dealers have demanded more advertising for years. Chevrolet Germany however only wants to spend more for advertising when the dealers have moved more cars.” While chicken waits for egg and egg waits for chicken, Chevrolet’s sales dropped 40 percent in January in Europe.

There is money to sponsor Manchester United. Says Kfz-Betrieb: “This deal did cost GM half a billion Euro, but it will hardly significantly raise the awareness of the brand and its specific products throughout Europe.”