LONDON, March 10 — British retailer, the John Lewis Partnership, reported today sharply lower annual losses and restored its staff bonus, saying its recovery plan was gaining momentum.
The employee-owned group, which runs John Lewis department stores and upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It made a pretax loss of £26 million (US$34.3 million) in the year to January 29 versus a loss of £517 million in 2020-21.
However, profit before exceptional items rose 38 per cent to £181 million and it said it would pay a 3 per cent bonus to staff, whom it calls partners, equivalent to 1.5 weeks’ pay and totalling £46 million.
Chairman Sharon White set out a five-year recovery programme in October 2020. She has closed stores and cut jobs but is investing £1 billion in online and improvements to stores, diversifying beyond retail and seeking more partnerships.
Her plan seeks efficiency savings of £300 million = a year by 2022 and targets a profit of £400 million by year five.
The 158-year-old group cut costs by 170 million pounds in fiscal 2021-22.
Total partnership sales rose 1 per cent to 12.5 billion pounds, with John Lewis making sales of 4.93 billion pounds, up 4 per cent, and Waitrose 7.54 billion pounds, down 1 per cent.
Exceptional charges of 161 million pounds were booked — mostly restructuring costs, property lease exit costs and a further small write down of the value of John Lewis stores.
“As inflation and energy prices rise, our customers face higher living costs,” said White.
“While this creates uncertainties as we look ahead, we remain focused on investing significantly in our Partnership Plan to transform and grow our business.”
The partnership has committed to paying the voluntary Real Living Wage nationwide and has set this year’s pay review at 2 per cent. — Reuters
