Give us clarity in the spending review, pleads John Lewis boss

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Andy Street said George Osborne must "be clear what's going to happen and call it once and then get on with it so at least we know what's going to happen so we can plan with certainty".

The 47-year-old managing director believes that Britain will avoid a double-dip recession.

He said: "Although there are going to be public sector cuts we can see private sector businesses, particularly in the south, actually being surprisingly resilient."

John Lewis plans to invest 200m in its stores next year, said Mr Street, up to 60 per cent more than in the "crisis year" of 2008.

"If that's typical, that investment will help drive the economy on," he added.

The John Lewis veteran of 25 years said the group's 29 UK stores are demonstrating "huge outpeformance" against the general retail environment.

Yesterday a survey by the British Retail Consortium showed that sales growth halved last month, led by a drop in big-ticket items, as uncertainty ahead of government spending cuts made consumers nervous.

But Mr Street said: "Our trade has been ahead of last year. That's very dynamic.

"That does not reflect the market as a whole, which is barely above level. We are expecting to be well ahead of last year in the run-up to Christmas. Our expectation for John Lewis is sales will be six per cent ahead.

"This is obviously still very good growth. But the market as a whole we are expecting to be no better than flat or one per cent ahead."

The group's online store has been a notable success, notching up 17 per cent of sales – 500m – in the last year. The MD expects this to grow to 600m next year.

Turnover for John Lewis was 1.4bn in the six months to July 2010, with like for like sales up 12 per cent and an operating profit of 35.9m, up 15 per cent.

Mr Street was speaking during a visit to the group's city centre store in Sheffield during one of his regular fact-finding tours of the regions.

He said the store was 2.5-2.6 per cent ahead of last year, which he is happy with, given the wider market conditions.

Sheffield's John Lewis employs 550 staff, although this number will swell as more temporary workers are hired for the festive shopping season.

Mr Street said 60-70 per cent of the Sheffield population visit the store, but was unable to describe a typical customer because John Lewis "is a very broad church in Sheffield, as it is in other cities".

Asked if John Lewis had usurped Marks & Spencer's position as Britain's best-loved retailer, Mr Street said: "It would be arrogant to say that. I will let customers judge. The recent awards would say we have been voted Britain's greatest retailer. The customers appear to be saying (that]."

John Lewis is the largest employee-owned company in the UK, a business model which helped it during the economic downturn.

Mr Street said: "Because we were not owned by shareholders in 2008 we were able to do the right thing for the long term and not forced to do short-term actions to prop up the share price. We did not have to compromise on service – we did not have to cut numbers to deliver short-term profits. As a consequence, our customers still get excellent service.

"Our partners own the business so that when customers come in they are being served by an owner.

"That should mean they are being given a better standard of service because they have a stake in the future of the business."

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