John Lewis - Never Knowingly Having Retail Experience.

[Andersen]

John Lewis are moving into the landlord market and have announced plans to enter the Build-to-rent sector. 

The three proposed sites include building over Waitrose shops in Bromley and West Ealing in Greater London, as well as replacing a vacant John Lewis warehouse in Mill Lane, Reading. 

Their advertising spiel says the new build rental homes that would offer the trust, quality and service that people expect from John Lewis. It looks like a wasted opportunity when  they could have chosen to move away from their existing reputation 

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2022/jlp-announces-first-proposed-locations-for-rental-homes.html 

[spygirl]

Retail is detail...

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/06/waitrose-availability-issues/

Idiot diversity hire from public sector.

Cunt subcontinental accountant.

They are fucked.

https://www.ft.com/content/77fbbc82-420a-49cc-8208-3faa2444311b#comments-anchor

“Unless we change how we work, there’s a real danger that the partnership won’t exist in the form that we want it to in the future,” she added. Waitrose was striving to have “the right amount of partners doing the right tasks at the right time” as shopping patterns change, including having enough staff on the shop floor during its busiest times, she said.

Waitrose has a distinct feel of the  teachers staff room - loads of fat arsed 50+ wimmin standing around moaning.

 

 

[Bedrag Justesen]

22 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Waitrose has a distinct feel of the  teachers staff room - loads of fat arsed 50+ wimmin standing around moaning.

#TooManyWomen

Rivalled only by M&S.

[sancho panza]

Dame Sharon White bringing all her retail experience to bear to make the turnaround work

Locally,the only Waitrose I ever went in-for the free coffeee natch-has been turned into a Lidl.Sort of sums it up really

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/waitrose-staff-warned-jobs-risk-212143679.html

Waitrose staff warned jobs at risk in overhaul

Waitrose staff have been warned that jobs are at risk as the retailer overhauls its business in an effort to boost productivity.

Tina Mitchell, retail director at Waitrose, allegedly warned employees that efforts to streamline the loss-making grocer “may result in some partners leaving the business”.

Waitrose reportedly expects to record £50m in savings each year from changing work patterns to ensure employees are “doing the right tasks at the right time”.

The overhaul comes after Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, in March scrapped the partnership bonus and warned of job cuts after annual losses soared to £234m, up from £27m during the previous year.

It recently appointed Will Kernan, the former chief executive of River Island and retail turnaround expert, to help make £600m in savings in addition to the £300m already stripped from the business during the past two years.

The John Lewis Partnership, Britain’s largest employee-owned business, aims to deliver £873m in group savings by January 2026, in an effort to turn around the business and revive profits.

Waitrose is seeking to regain lost market share, which dropped to 4.4pc in the 12 weeks to August, according to data from Kantar.

In February, Waitrose announced plans to cut prices on hundreds of grocery essentials - including bread, pasta, vegetables and meal - to prevent cash-strapped middle class shoppers switching to rival retailers.

It is among the traditional supermarkets caught in a fierce price war against German discount retailers Aldi and Lidl, which gained 800,000 new shoppers between July and August.

Edited September 6, 2023 by sancho panza

[sancho panza]

Oh the Hope!!!!

To be fair,I think JL were sailing up poop creek long before she arrived.Amazing though that someone with near 'zero' retail experience got such an important job.Looks to me like she got set up to be the fall guy tbh.If you can't see the patsy etc etc

ex Cambridge Uni/Civil Service/Treasury/World Bank/British Embassy/Ofcom then errrrr...Chairman JL.

I think it's going to be close who goes first but Asda likely wins it over Morrisons and JL.

Sept 2019

https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/news/new-face-and-leadership-style-at-john-lewis-sharon-white/

It’s said that some staff at John Lewis wept with joy when Sharon White was announced as chairman of the department store chain. White is the first black woman to chair a large British retail business and, given that such roles are usually filled by white, privately-educated men, it’s easy to understand why her appointment was greeted with such emotion.

One in six John Lewis Partnership employees are black, Asian or minority ethnic, yet business leaders from those backgrounds remain rare in the top echelons of British business. Role models like White, therefore, are crucial in achieving true diversity and inclusion. She demonstrates that — despite obstacles left in her path — bright, capable and talented women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds can aim high and fulfill their potential.

Importantly, White’s appointment to one of the most high-profile jobs in retail — with its near-£1m salary — was made on the strength of her CV and track record alone.

The daughter of Windrush-generation Jamaican immigrants, White was born and raised in Leyton, east London. Her father worked for British Rail and her mother was a machinist. She accepted a place at Cambridge University to study economics, after which she took a year out to work in a deprived area of Birmingham and subsequently joined the civil service in 1989. She fast-tracked through the ranks to the Treasury, eventually becoming the first black person to be a permanent secretary there.

White has worked at the World Bank and British embassy in Washington, as well as in Tony Blair's policy unit at No 10. She has joined John Lewis after four years as chief executive of communications regulator Ofcom. Though linked with top public sector jobs, including Governor of the Bank of England, it’s clear that White has been preparing herself for a move to the private sector, taking a non-executive role on the board of house builder Barratt Developments.

She has described her management style as "delegating” and has been active in coaching and mentoring women at the early stage of their careers. She’s earned a reputation for briskness and efficiency; former Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke describes her as one of the brightest people he has ever worked with.

While in her role as second permanent secretary to the Treasury, White was responsible for overseeing the UK's spending cuts. In this job she proved her skills of diplomacy, as she had to "cut left, right and centre and managed to do it without really falling out with everybody," one colleague has said.

Others have described her as “down to earth and approachable but tough when she needs to be” — someone who “gets on well with everybody but no pushover”. Indeed at Ofcom, White showed herself ready to take on big interests, including BT, the BBC, mobile operators Three and O2, and even the Russian government.

Under White, Ofcom showed an appetite for intervening on behalf of consumers in pricing disputes. It also showed willing to challenge the growing influence of social media sites and streaming video services, even though these fall outside the regulator's remit.

In these different roles, White has honed her skills in cajoling and charming those who walk the corridors of power, in Whitehall, Westminster and in business. Now she has the small matter of turning around the performance at John Lewis which last year suffered a 99% fall in profits. Still, in an industry still largely run by men where the customers are largely women, White’s appointment can already be chalked up as a victory.

 

This Black History Month, check out our Delivering Diversity campaign and see what changes you can make at your company to create a diverse and thriving workplace.

Edited September 6, 2023 by sancho panza

[sancho panza]

I go in JL rarely.Lovely shopping experience,great staff but low footfall in some areas.

Going to be intersting what happens in 24.

JL 2020/21 results

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2021/unaudited-results-for-year-ended-30-january-2021.html

In a difficult year, the Partnership recorded a Loss before tax of £(517)m, compared to a Profit before tax of £146m in the previous year. This is the result of substantial exceptional costs of £(648)m, mainly the write down in the value of John Lewis shops owing to the pronounced shift to online, as well as restructuring and redundancy costs from store closures and changes to our head office. John Lewis shops are now held on our balance sheet at almost half the value they were before this year’s and last year’s write downs. Before the pandemic we judged that £6 in every £10 spent online with John Lewis was driven by our shops. The ratio has fallen to £3 in every £10.

 

JL 2021/22 resutls

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2022/jlp-unaudited-results-for-year-ended-29-january-2022.html

When we include exceptional items (£161m) and Bonus (£46m), our loss before tax was £26m. This was £491m (95%) better than our loss in 2020/21 (when we had a big ‘write down’ in the value of our John Lewis stores) and £172m (118%) lower than the profit two years ago, when we had a one-off benefit from closing our defined benefit pension scheme. Our exceptional costs were mostly restructuring costs, property lease exit costs and a small write down of John Lewis stores.  

 

JL 2022/23 results

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/Juniper/FYR2022-23/John-Lewis-Partnership-unaudited-results-for-the-year-ended-28-January-2023.pdf

Dear Partner
You’ve been exceptional in what has been another very tough year. Two years of pandemic and now a cost of
living crisis.
I know you’re feeling the impact of higher inflation, and I hope the £500 (pro rata) cost of living payment and
free food over the winter helped.
Inflation has had a big impact on the Partnership and sent our costs soaring - up almost £180m on last year.
We haven’t sat on our hands. We’ve been working hard to drive out costs.

All in all, this has made for a tough set of results. We made a loss of £78m. When you add in exceptional
costs - the biggest one being a write down in the value of Waitrose stores - the loss3 was £234m. Our balance
sheet remains strong - £1bn of cash and access to a £420m credit facility, like an overdraft, if we need it.

[King Penda]

Your all wracist for not shoping there and surporting her

[sancho panza]

2 minutes ago, King Penda said:

Your all wracist for not shoping there and surporting her

I'm presuming that either the JL Board didn't like Stuart Rose or he didn't like them.imho they needed someone like him and even then he'd have had hsi work cut out.Online is killing legacy stores.

[King Penda]

Just now, sancho panza said:

I'm presuming that either the JL Board didn't like Stuart Rose or he didn't like them.imho they needed someone like him and even then he'd have had hsi work cut out.Online is killing legacy stores.

For food I suspect Aldi and Lidl are nailing them . New stores are appearing all over stoke

[reformed nice guy]

34 minutes ago, sancho panza said:

I go in JL rarely.Lovely shopping experience,great staff but low footfall in some areas.

Going to be intersting what happens in 24.

JL 2020/21 results

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2021/unaudited-results-for-year-ended-30-january-2021.html

In a difficult year, the Partnership recorded a Loss before tax of £(517)m, compared to a Profit before tax of £146m in the previous year. This is the result of substantial exceptional costs of £(648)m, mainly the write down in the value of John Lewis shops owing to the pronounced shift to online, as well as restructuring and redundancy costs from store closures and changes to our head office. John Lewis shops are now held on our balance sheet at almost half the value they were before this year’s and last year’s write downs. Before the pandemic we judged that £6 in every £10 spent online with John Lewis was driven by our shops. The ratio has fallen to £3 in every £10.

 

JL 2021/22 resutls

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2022/jlp-unaudited-results-for-year-ended-29-january-2022.html

When we include exceptional items (£161m) and Bonus (£46m), our loss before tax was £26m. This was £491m (95%) better than our loss in 2020/21 (when we had a big ‘write down’ in the value of our John Lewis stores) and £172m (118%) lower than the profit two years ago, when we had a one-off benefit from closing our defined benefit pension scheme. Our exceptional costs were mostly restructuring costs, property lease exit costs and a small write down of John Lewis stores.  

 

JL 2022/23 results

https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/Juniper/FYR2022-23/John-Lewis-Partnership-unaudited-results-for-the-year-ended-28-January-2023.pdf

Dear Partner
You’ve been exceptional in what has been another very tough year. Two years of pandemic and now a cost of
living crisis.
I know you’re feeling the impact of higher inflation, and I hope the £500 (pro rata) cost of living payment and
free food over the winter helped.
Inflation has had a big impact on the Partnership and sent our costs soaring - up almost £180m on last year.
We haven’t sat on our hands. We’ve been working hard to drive out costs.

All in all, this has made for a tough set of results. We made a loss of £78m. When you add in exceptional
costs - the biggest one being a write down in the value of Waitrose stores - the loss3 was £234m. Our balance
sheet remains strong - £1bn of cash and access to a £420m credit facility, like an overdraft, if we need it.

A total loss of £777 million over 3 years. A lucky number?

[azzuri82]

Waitrose is great for popping in and getting 'the' branded item you need there and then. For for the daily necessities - no way in hell could you afford those prices for everything.

[Bus Stop Boxer]

Waitrose chicken is cheaper than ASDA. I suspect plenty else is too.

Ive got both in my town, the ASDA is a fucking horrible place to shop. Increasingly less reason to go there, which is nice.

We have a Lidl and an Aldi too. Waitrose always busy, holding up in Dorset.

[sancho panza]

18 minutes ago, azzuri82 said:

Waitrose is great for popping in and getting 'the' branded item you need there and then. For for the daily necessities - no way in hell could you afford those prices for everything.

Im a great fan of footfall research.you know walking the store,watching the tills.

Their demogrpahic is older and probably more public sector.my dear old Mum reports back from Sainsburys and M&S.Sainsburys have really gone out and attacked the discounters with their nectar deals,much like Tesco & clubcard.

Waitrose is just plain expensive and entitled.The thing is with businesses like that from what I've seen over the years,they go under slowly then suddenly.

A couple more winters of rising bills and even the most diehard wealthy Marxist will give up the ghost.Just two examples but there will be many.It's about 30% more from what I can see

Tesco

 

Waitrose

 

[sancho panza]

Part of it may have been that the candidates wanted more moeny than JL was prepared to pay.

The Chair at JL isnt the same as the tesco Chair,slightly differnt role,JL Chair is more hands on Ibeleive,so comparing JL Chair with High st CEO seems reasonable.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jun/10/stuart-rose-pay-marks-and-spencer

The outgoing boss of Marks & Spencer scooped a bumper £4.3m in pay and bonuses last year – an increase of nearly 140% on the previous 12 months.

Sir Stuart Rose, 61, was awarded a bonus of £2.8m in a year when M&S delivered a 5% increase in profits to £632m. The chain's share price climbed 17% over its financial year – substantially less than the FTSE 100 gained in the same period.

Annual profits are still way below the £1bn recorded two years ago and the shares have slipped back 8% since the year-end in March. Rose did not earn a bonus in the previous year, when his salary and benefits totalled £1.8m. Other members of the M&S board were also rewarded with big bonuses. Together the five executive directors earned more than £12m, with clothing and homewares director Kate Bostock paid £2.5m and marketing director Steven Sharp receiving £2.3m.

 

[sancho panza]

11 minutes ago, Bus Stop Boxer said:

Waitrose chicken is cheaper than ASDA. I suspect plenty else is too.

Ive got both in my town, the ASDA is a fucking horrible place to shop. Increasingly less reason to go there, which is nice.

We have a Lidl and an Aldi too. Waitrose always busy, holding up in Dorset.

I think Asda will go over the poop creek waterfall before JL given teh state of play.There may be issues with supplier credit with them,hence prices rising.

I hear rumours from well placed people about Asda a fairbit these days.The owners perfomance at parliament was hardly stellar.but that has been covered by @spygirl in the Issa bros thread.I think if that does go belly up,then it will be a big shock for a lot of Joe Public

I think the clue is in your sample area.Genreally an older demographic,I wouldn't be surprised to see them do well down there.If you have the cash,it's a great place to shop.Zero skint people.You get the reduced section all to yourself

[Frank Hovis]

21 minutes ago, sancho panza said:

I hear rumours from well placed people about Asda a fairbit these days.The owners perfomance at parliament was hardly stellar.but that has been covered by @spygirl in the Issa bros thread.I think if that does go belly up,then it will be a big shock for a lot of Joe Public

 

I wonder if Walmart will just buy it back dirt cheap.  I would say that Asda supermarkets are viable even though the corporate structure that owns them is not.

[Chewing Grass]

Did anybody seriously think that the visibly inbred ISSA brothers could actually run a first world business without loading up on cheap credit.

[Frank Hovis]

7 minutes ago, Chewing Grass said:

Did anybody seriously think that the visibly inbred ISSA brothers could actually run a first world business without loading up on cheap credit.

 

As long as the bankers are also thickos then anything is possible for a limited time.

 

Remember Grant Bovey's Imagine Homes?

The entrepreneur set up Imagine Homes, the largest buy-to-let company in the country, which was at one stage worth in excess of £100m. Just two years ago, he confidently predicted that it would be turning over £1bn after a flotation on the stock market. But on Tuesday, he will walk into a court in London to declare himself unable to pay his personal debts.

He has three High Court writs against him for more than £3m - owed, he says, to banks for company debts he had guaranteed and not to individual creditors.

Even , it is a spectacular fall from grace and one that he had fought hard to avoid. For Grant, whose property empire has crashed leaving company debts of more than £50m, the shame and sense of failure weigh heavily on him.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-1690027/Humiliated-Bovey-to-be-declared-bankrupt.html

 

Curiously this is almost sidestepped in his wiki page, it doesn't mention Imagine Homes failing and this being the cause of his later bankrputcy.

 

Bovey was the CEO of Imagine Homes.[2]

In 2002, Bovey took part in a charity boxing match against Ricky Gervais and lost on points after going three 90 second rounds.[3]

Bovey was declared bankrupt in 2010.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Bovey

 

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Frank Hovis

[sancho panza]

2 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

 

I wonder if Walmart will just buy it back dirt cheap.  I would say that Asda supermarkets are viable even though the corporate structure that owns them is not.

super point Frank

fors asda to survie they';ll need to come out of adminstration under the umbrella of a company that could get supplier credit without any problems.That would be a walmart or something similar.

otherwise they'll jsut go to the wall a la wilko.Some of the better sites will get bought by Sains/Tesco.Lidla dn Aldi will eat market share.

[spygirl]

Britain’s high streets risk becoming ‘looting ground’ for shoplifters, says John Lewis boss

Dame Sharon White calls for Royal Commission review into the ailing health of town centres

By Hannah Boland and Matt Oliver 10 September 2023 • 9:00pm

Dame Sharon says rising crime, unfair business rates, tourist tax and sclerotic planning rules are impacting the high street

High streets risk becoming a “looting ground” for criminals gangs, the boss of John Lewis has warned, as the department store calls for a Royal Commission review into dying town centres. 

Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, has said high streets are being blighted by a rise in shoplifting and antisocial behaviour, following years of shop closures which have left town and city centres with boarded up storefronts or “seemingly endless” rows of charity shops and vape vendors.

Writing in The Telegraph, she is calling on ministers to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the health of towns – and how to revitalise them – for the first time since the Victorian era.

More than 6,000 UK shops have shut their doors in the past five years, according to industry figures, as shoppers increasingly prefer to shop online. 

Alongside rising crime, Dame Sharon said “unfair” business rates, sclerotic planning rules, and the Government’s imposition of a “tourist tax” were also to blame for the declining health of the high street. 

She added that clean air zones, like Sadiq Khan’s controversial Ulez scheme in London, and other traffic changes needed to be implemented “in a way that doesn’t leave anyone behind”. 

Without a “comprehensive plan” to stop the rise in thefts from stores, high-streets risk “becoming a looting ground for emboldened shoplifters and organised gangs”, she said. 

Her warning comes after the Co-op revealed it had recruited undercover guards to patrol the grocery aisles for shoplifters, following a 35pc jump in thefts and antisocial behavior in the first half of this year alone. 

A Royal Commission, an independently-run public inquiry, would be best-placed to look at high streets in the round, the John Lewis boss said, adding: “High streets are more important to us than the sum of their parts; they help define our towns and cities and create civic pride. 

“They are vital to us as a nation and, which is why, piecemeal decisions on individual problems will not work.”

Royal commission members are appointed by the King to gather evidence on the topic and produce a report on recommendations. 

The last time a Royal Commission was ordered into the health of towns was 180 years ago, during the reign of Queen Victoria. 

It was centred around public health concerns. The inquiry led to the Public Health Act of 1848, which was instrumental in helping improve sanitary conditions in England and Wales. 

It would mark the first Royal Commission since 1999, when Tony Blair established one on the reform of the House of Lords. 

The Conservative Party pledged to set up a Royal Commission on the criminal justice system in the 2019 election. However, work was delayed by the pandemic. 

Dame Sharon’s warning marks the latest in a series of calls for action by Britain’s leading retail chiefs. 

Last month, a report authored by the Retail Sector Council, whose members include the chief executives of Sainsbury’s, Boots and Primark, cautioned that Oxford Street’s decline risked becoming the blueprint for Britain’s high streets if ministers fail to support regeneration efforts.

Richard Pennycook, the former Co-op chief executive and co-chairman of the council, said more towns and cities threatened to turn into “wastelands” because of a lack of incentives for retailers to invest in stores.

Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer is embroiled in a row with Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove over its store on Oxford Street, after he blocked its multi-million pound regeneration plans. 

Marks & Spencer has launched a legal challenge against Michael Gove’s block on redevelopment of its Oxford Street store Credit: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Chief executive Stuart Machin said Mr Gove’s decision would have a “chilling effect” on investment across the country. M&S is challenging the decision. 

Dame Sharon said planning laws must “provide clarity and certainty to support businesses when they want to invest in regeneration”.

She said this included M&S’s Oxford Street development, as well as at the John Lewis Partnership’s redevelopment project in West Ealing, where it is attempting to build more than 400 flats above a Waitrose store.

A government spokesman said: “Our Levelling up programme is reviving high streets across the country, with our £830m Future High Streets Fund helping to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that drives growth and improves experience for local people.”

The spokesman added that recent planning changes were supporting high streets to be able to respond quickly to changing consumer demand, while the business rates relief scheme announced last year was helping businesses across town centres.  

[spygirl]

Business rates are totally fair.

They are based on rents.

Surely she needs to be looking at why rents are not zilch?

But ifthat happened then JL would probably go bust as its real estate portfolio is marked to sod all.

And by shoplifters, does she mean - blacks n ethnics?

Cos those are people who tend to be robbing.

Why not push for a law that would see any migrant and family thrown out of they comment any crime beyond a minor parking fine?

Indeed make not paying BBC tax a similar crime.

 

 

[spunko]

17 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Business rates are totally fair.

They are based on rents.

Surely she needs to be looking at why rents are not zilch?

But ifthat happened then JL would probably go bust as its real estate portfolio is marked to sod all.

And by shoplifters, does she mean - blacks n ethnics?

Cos those are people who tend to be robbing.

Why not push for a law that would see any migrant and family thrown out of they comment any crime beyond a minor parking fine?

Indeed make not paying BBC tax a similar crime.

 

 

 

[One percent]

19 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Business rates are totally fair.

They are based on rents.

Surely she needs to be looking at why rents are not zilch?

But ifthat happened then JL would probably go bust as its real estate portfolio is marked to sod all.

And by shoplifters, does she mean - blacks n ethnics?

Cos those are people who tend to be robbing.

Why not push for a law that would see any migrant and family thrown out of they comment any crime beyond a minor parking fine?

Indeed make not paying BBC tax a similar crime.

 

 

We’ve gone from a generally law abiding country to one where violence and theft are rife.  Then you look at the names of those who tend to be the perpetrators.  Import the third world, become the third world seems to fit the pattern.  But no, let’s just leave that particular elephant in the corner of the room.  

[spygirl]

Th run down state of a lot of city centres can be put down to the large number of potless migrants whove into them over the last 20 years.

Start kicking the potless fuckers out and things will improve.

 

 

[GTM]

32 minutes ago, spygirl said:

She added that clean air zones, like Sadiq Khan’s controversial Ulez scheme in London, and other traffic changes needed to be implemented “in a way that doesn’t leave anyone behind”.

This is the sort of meaningless waffle that is the stock-in-trade of civil servants everywhere.

Putting aside my belief that ULEZ is another step on the road to an authoritarian surveillance society, if you are a believer in ULEZ as Sharon White seems to be, you wish to change behaviour. How do you do that without leaving people behind? Is she proposing that anybody with a non-compliant car who might ever go anywhere one of these zones gets a new car for free? I mean what does this bullshit she is spouting actually mean?

But then this is the sort of person who rather than calling for Plod to do their jobs, thinks the solution is to set up a Royal Commission. 

She just screams civil servant with absolutely no experience of operating in the real world. You can bet board meetings at JL are civil servant word salad bingo.