John Lewis - Never Knowingly Having Retail Experience.

[spygirl]

Her last attempt at improvignsales failed .....

Zombie knife selection in the kitchen n home dept ....

[Underwhelmed]

At  least she has the awareness to know she's out of her depth and useless.

[Snake Plissken]

3 minutes ago, Underwhelmed said:

At  least she has the awareness to know she's out of her depth and useless.

by the time she leaves it'll be about 2 years too late and might be impossible task for the next person to turn around

[Panther]

Just read her quotes

'making progress'

'long road ahead'

'there's more to do'

No kidding.

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by Panther

[Bornagain]

2 minutes ago, Panther said:

Just read her quotes

'making progress'

'long road ahead'

'there's more to do'

No kidding.

 

Indeed, If we just rearrange and add a few missing words in bold we get.....

There's more to do but we are making progress on the long road ahead to bankruptcy

[Upsettah]

33 minutes ago, Bornagain said:

Indeed, If we just rearrange and add a few missing words in bold we get.....

There's more to do but we are making progress on the long road ahead to bankruptcy

The John Lewis stores are going to be shuttered, that's for sure. Not a question of 'if' but 'when'. 

I'll stick my neck out and give it 18 months. I suspect a disasterous 2024 Christmas will be the straw that breaks their camel's back.

I'd guess Waitrose will carry on and do quite well once it's jettisoned that dead weight.

[MrXxxx]

9 minutes ago, Upsettah said:

I'd guess Waitrose will carry on and do quite well once it's jettisoned that dead weight.

Not so sure, I think M&S food has 'taken their crown'. Further, I think their Customer Service is going the way of Tescos/Sainsburys i.e. indifferent...a personal example, the other day I had two items and there was a long queue so I went to pay at CS [previously done this no problem]. The shop assistant said it wasn't possible despite me pointing out the long queues, and when I suggested they use her to open another till she said it wasn't possible as she had to be on CS [where there were no customers!]...when a retailer starts to behave like this i.e. forgetting who the customer is, it's a) when they lose the 'privilege' to charge their customers a premium, and b) when they lose market share to their [cheaper] competitors.

[Ash4781b]

No real surprise at the news today. Some strong comments in press. 

“Today’s news that Dame Sharon White is to step down from leading Britain’s best-known partnership next year should not come as a huge shock despite John Lewis’s reputation for boardroom longevity.

The former Treasury civil servant and Ofcom boss was an eye-catching appointment when she took over from Charlie Mayfield, who served a 13-year stint, in 2020. She arrived with no retail experience and, in truth, little has gone right since.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/dame-sharon-white-john-lewis-exit-chair-retailer-partnership-waitrose-employee-bonus-b1110737.html

[Ash4781b]

1 hour ago, Snake Plissken said:

by the time she leaves it'll be about 2 years too late and might be impossible task for the next person to turn around

Yeah they are in mostly fast moving consumer goods. Thing is there is a resurgence in M&S, etc. I think the partnership has shielded them. Loads of actors would want to buy them - Next plc, M&S private equity, supermarkets, Mike Ashley you name it. 

[No One]

To the surprise of absolutely no one. Retail is not a cushy industry to be in, and no public sector bimbo is going to last without running the business to the ground

[wherebee]

On 12/09/2023 at 00:48, sancho panza said:

the blame game appears to be starting.

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/john-lewis-boss-calls-public-115447681.html

John Lewis boss calls for public inquiry into decline of UK high streets

The boss of John Lewis has called for a royal commission into Britain’s high streets, which she said risk becoming “looting grounds” for crime and overrun with vacant shops.

Dame Sharon White, chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, said some UK towns and cities have become “shells of their former selves”.

“Boarded-up shops left vacant, dwindling numbers of banks and post offices… and, in their place, seemingly endless rows of vaping and charity shops,” she said, writing in The Telegraph.

The retail boss said a royal commission – which is an independent public inquiry – could give them a much-needed boost.

There needs to be a “holistic view” of the problems facing high streets, rather than individually investigating issues such as tax, crime, planning, housing, and environmental policy, she argued.

The British Retail Consortium said in a report in July that some 6,000 shops have closed down over the past five years, largely due to “crippling business rates and the impact of the Covid lockdowns”.

Dame Sharon’s call came as some of the country’s biggest retailers urged the Chancellor to freeze their property taxes, saying a rates increase could add around £400 million a year to retailers’ bills.

Major chains including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q are among those who wrote a letter to Jeremy Hunt on Monday in a bid to prevent costs running too high for already under-pressure businesses.

Dame Sharon said retailers are “unfairly hit” by business rates, adding that a royal commission could develop proposals for a fairer system which keeps up with the changing face of the high street and shopping habits.

immigrant over promoted in manner which hurts native population cannot see wood for the trees shocker...

[sancho panza]

10 hours ago, Ash4781b said:

No real surprise at the news today. Some strong comments in press. 

“Today’s news that Dame Sharon White is to step down from leading Britain’s best-known partnership next year should not come as a huge shock despite John Lewis’s reputation for boardroom longevity.

The former Treasury civil servant and Ofcom boss was an eye-catching appointment when she took over from Charlie Mayfield, who served a 13-year stint, in 2020. She arrived with no retail experience and, in truth, little has gone right since.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/dame-sharon-white-john-lewis-exit-chair-retailer-partnership-waitrose-employee-bonus-b1110737.html

I think this is what happens when you get someone with little relevant experience running a complex business facing structural problems in a cost of living crisis.

Still she's made a shedload of cash from it.

 

'Dame Sharon rightly identified that change was needed to modernise a business caught by the long-term trends of the pivot to online shopping and the shorter-term maelstroms of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

That John Lewis has survived those is something to mark on the positive side of the ledger.

Yet there have been many missteps that shook confidence, both within and outside the partnership.She considered ending the staff ownership model to bring in new capital, a battle she eventually lost. The business has been sustaining huge losses, falling £234 million into the red last year.'

[TNS]

She’s still got another year to make it worse still.

[reformed nice guy]

Any criticism will be muted out of fear of being labelled a racist

[sancho panza]

6 hours ago, reformed nice guy said:

Any criticism will be muted out of fear of being labelled a racist

to be fair to her,I think there were very few people equipped for the job in hand.

going for soemone with zero retail expereince was always a big risk

the fact that they're celbrating lossess being down 41% to -£58mn tells the story.

 

 

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/where-went-wrong-sharon-white-150544842.html

Where it went wrong for Sharon White at John Lewis

She is the East End born daughter of Windrush generation parents who smashed every glass ceiling she encountered on her way to the top of the business establishment.

Sharon White, the Cambridge educated former top Treasury mandarin and boss of the powerful media and communications sector regulator Ofcom notched up a series of firsts as a black woman as she rose to take on one of the scrutinised jobs in retail - chairing the John Lewis Partnership.

But this week, little more than three years into her tenure, it was announced that Dame Sharon - as she became in 2020 - will be stepping down when her term comes to an end in February 2025.

 

That may sound like an orderly handover, but for an organisation that has only been chaired by five people since 1929 it is a clear signal that this appointment just has not worked out.

So where did all go wrong for Sharon White in a career that had otherwise been one of trail-blazing progress and success?

Even when her predecessor Sir Charlie Mayfield announced in 2019 that a bureaucrat who has spent much of her working life in the corridors of Whitehall would lead the John Lewis Partnership the following year, he admitted she was not a “conventional” retail choice, adding: “But these are not conventional retail times.”

He wasn’t wrong, online only competitors were growing, costs such as business rates were biting and a number of department stores were losing money. But Mayfield could not have foreseen the unprecedented turbulence White would have to grapple with.

From the pandemic that forced lockdowns and store closures, to global supply chain fractures, and then a cost-of-living crisis, White has faced a cocktail of challenges since becoming the group’s sixth chairman, all while trying to boost sales and trim costs as part of a turnaround plan.

But Mayfield believed White, 56, who has a basic salary of £1.1 million, had the “vision, leadership, drive and flair to steer the partnership through its next phase”.

Even before she took over, John Lewis Partnership, which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain, had not been without serious long-term problems including a debt mountain and increasing competition from nimbler online rivals.

But in March 2020, weeks after she started, all non-essential retailers were ordered to close for the first Covid-19 lockdown. So while Waitrose could welcome customers, albeit with restrictions in place, John Lewis department stores were not open for business. In results for the year to January 2021 White said: “The past year has been one of the most challenging in the partnership’s history.”

Those days are thankfully over but almost as soon had the pandemic eased, inflationary pressures and the cost of living crisis meant shoppers could not return to their old spending habits.

Zoe Mills, lead retail analyst at GlobalData says: “Dame Sharon White has been at the helm of the John Lewis Partnership during an exceedingly rocky period. She has faced unprecedented challenges, namely the global pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis. Indeed, while she will have been its shortest-serving chair in its history, she will have withstood at least four Prime Ministers during her tenure.”

Anyone put in her position would have had to make radical changes for the business to survive, White unveiled a number of measures to help steer the company back to a better financial position. Difficult decisions included axing staff bonuses- a scheme that began in 1953- in a move to lower debts. Some 16 John Lewis branches have also closed, including a Midlands flagship in the heart of England’s second city Birmingham, since she became chairman, with the aim of concentrating on more profitable shops.

Plans to boost revenues also included a move into rental properties with scope for 10,000 homes, including some above stores, as part of bold ambitions to generate 40% of profits from outside retail by 2030. In 2021 the partnership launched investment products, such as a junior ISA, to customers after teaming up with digital wealth manager Nutmeg.

Efforts to attract more shoppers included the launch of Anyday, a new more affordable own-brand selling tech and fashion, and reducing prices by £100 million at Waitrose over the course of the year to January 2024.

While some moves have helped boost sales, the company has come under the spotlight over directions, or potential directions of the business that have attracted criticism.

It was reported in March that plans were being considered to dilute the famous partnership structure and bring in outside investment for the first time amid tough High Street conditions. The Sunday Times article that month said White was “understood to be in the early stages of exploring a plan to change the retailer’s mutual structure so it can try to raise between £1 billion and £2 billion of new investment”. When the plan encountered stiff internal opposition White later said that the partnership will always remain employee-owned, “no ifs, no buts”.

Earlier this year staff voted to back White in a confidence vote in her leadership during a turbulent period. Partnership council president Chris Earnshaw said: “The council voted in support of the chairman to progress the partnership in relation to its purpose, principles and rules. The council did not support last year’s performance, in which we reported a full year loss and no partner bonus.”

But the damage had been done. Reforming an institution like John Lewis is as hazardous as messing around with the schedule of Radio 4. If it works you might be forgiven, but if it does not then you will never win back the respect of your die hard loyalists.

The most recent financial updates last month showed that owing to inflationary pressures the partnership plan will take two additional years to deliver - in 2027/28 rather than 2025/26. There were some encouraging signs: for the six months to July 29 pre-tax losses narrowed by 41% to £59 million and sales improved 2% to £5.8 billion. The company added that 600,000 more customers shopped with it in the half, taking the total number of customers to 21.4 million. Meanwhile debts at 2022/23 stood at £1.7 billion, much improved from £3.6 billion as at 2014/15.

When the interim results were published, White said: “While change is never easy - and there is a long road ahead - there are reasons for optimism. Performance is improving. More customers are shopping with us. Trust in the brands and support for the partnership model remain high.”

But it was all too little too late. Just weeks later the end of her reign was confirmed.

Richard Lim, chief executive of analysts Retail Economics says whoever takes over is in for a serious challenge: “Sitting at the helm of the company is perhaps one of the toughest gigs in UK retail. Constrained by the partnership model, a large fixed cost-base and thriving digital competition makes for an incredibly challenging landscape.”

Russ Mould at broker AJ Bell says: “In the end, the business has a lot of legacy challenges – the never knowingly undersold tag, the big store format, and debt – that would have made life hard for many a management team, let alone during a pandemic and lockdowns, a period of supply chain disruption and then the return of inflation.”

He adds: “Having a chair who had no retail experience looked a brave call at the time and still does now, especially as the board is not bristling with life-long retailers even now (with certain notable exceptions). Retail is all about selling the right product at the right price in the right format and JLP’s overall results suggest it has not found, or lost, the magic formula. A better economics backdrop would help enormously and give the new chair a headstart which Dame Sharon never got.”

Edited October 3, 2023 by sancho panza

[sancho panza]

6 hours ago, reformed nice guy said:

Any criticism will be muted out of fear of being labelled a racist

dont know where you pulled that one from RNC?

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/meet-the-board.html

[spunko]

2 hours ago, sancho panza said:

dont know where you pulled that one from RNC?

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/meet-the-board.html

Ah.

Their managed decline will continue apace.

[Bus Stop Boxer]

Hello again....

 

[Bedrag Justesen]

Where it went wrong for Sharon White at John Lewis (msn.com)

[Jeff2500]

On 02/10/2023 at 11:14, Snake Plissken said:

by the time she leaves it'll be about 2 years too late and might be impossible task for the next person to turn around

They won’t fire her either now as she has already said she is leaving. Maybe she is smarter than we give her credit for. 

[Rare Bear]

7 minutes ago, Jeff2500 said:

They won’t fire her either now as she has already said she is leaving. Maybe she is smarter than we give her credit for. 

She is smart. Smart at getting ahead. Makes me think of a certain American woman.

[Virgil Caine]

7 hours ago, sancho panza said:

to be fair to her,I think there were very few people equipped for the job in hand.

going for soemone with zero retail expereince was always a big risk

the fact that they're celbrating lossess being down 41% to -£58mn tells the story.

 

 

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/where-went-wrong-sharon-white-150544842.html

Where it went wrong for Sharon White at John Lewis

 

I am pretty sure that Sharon’s bank balance and future pension entitlements indicate that it has not gone wrong for her at all. Not sure the other employees have much to cheer about.

[Bedrag Justesen]

2 hours ago, Rare Bear said:

She is smart. Smart at getting ahead. Makes me think of a certain American woman.

Barbie.

[Rare Bear]

7 hours ago, Bedrag Justesen said:

Barbie.

Nope.

[swiss_democracy_for_all]

To be fair, while she may have been a disastrous diversity hire, I can't see that anyone could change the general direction of these major high-street retailers, they're all going to end up in the same place eventually, bankrupt and sold off as flats.

For clothes and shoes shopping, we'll be sending off our 3D images of ourselves made from smartphone photographs taken from several angles with some measures given to websites. For those who want to see how things "look", before buying, stores will go online and VR headsets will get cheaper and more realistic.

One or two places might survive by setting themselves up as giant "Realfeel" stores where you pay a small entry fee but can test lots of different things, that might work as a business model. Normal shops are doomed IMO.