Furniture and lighting retailers suffered a double-digit drop in sales last year, but enjoyed six months of consecutive growth from July 2020.
Office for National Statistics figures tracking the average weekly retail sales of furniture, lighting and household articles (excluding appliances; paint; DIY; glass; musical, video and audio equipment) showed that sales for the year fell by 12.34%.
After a modest increase in January, sales dropped in February and March before lockdown began. Sales in April were less than a quarter of what they had been in 2019.
Since July sales were consistently higher than a year earlier, although performance varied from month to month, with July recording the only double-digit growth.
The average weekly sales value for each month was:
January: £283,013,000 +1.29%
February: £272,167,000 -7.96%
March: £200,657,000 -26.72%
April: £59,972,000 -78.61%
May: £97,590,000 -64.64%
June: £227,587,000 -16.86
July: £282,508,000 +14.67%
August: £275,722,000 +2.61%
September: £303,893,000 +4.45%
October: £350,149,000 +8.21%
November: £324,724,000 +2.83%
December: £325,104,000 +7.84%.
Understandably, April and May’s sales figures were the lowest since at least January 1986, and only the third time the average was below £100m since March 1986.
The figures do not take inflation into account, with widespread prices increases being reported since the summer.
