John Lewis Partnership: Retail giant returns to profit but staff still miss out on bonus

It said that after “careful consideration” it would not pay its workers an annual bonus for the second year running, but said it would increase overall pay for employees by a record £116m this year.

This marks only the third time since 1953 that the group has not paid out an annual staff bonus.

The group said it cut costs by £88m in the past financial year, with changes to staff hours and “simplified ways of working” across shops and central teams.

It said it would look to increase investment in 2024-25 by 70 per cent to £542m, which will focus on modernising technology, refreshing its shops and simplifying the group.

The group said it expects to make a “continued improvement” in profit this year as it overhauls its strategy, including plans to open new Waitrose shops and refurbish 80 supermarkets, while adding around 80 new brands to the department store chain.

It said: “Given the significant changes in the economy since we announced our strategy in 2020, we have refreshed our plan.

“We’re simplifying our business and improving productivity to generate stronger performance, from which we will invest to modernise and energise our unique customer offer.”

Commenting on the latest annual results, Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We have made significant progress in the last year to return the business to profitability and delivered results that allow us to increase investment in our retail businesses; we expect profits to grow further this year.

“This shows our plan is working, while we know there’s much more to do.

Ms White added: “This year we will unashamedly focus on investing back into our retail businesses for our customers, including opening new Waitrose shops and continuing to modernise our brand offering in John Lewis, while prioritising pay for our Partners.”

The John Lewis Partnership also cautioned over possible job cuts in the year ahead. The retail giant’s new chief executive, Nish Kankiwala, confirmed a “few hundred” roles were axed last year under moves to save £88m in costs, although many of the job cuts were through staff turnover and not replacing workers when they left.