Confidence: John Lewis chairman Dame Sharon White
Retailer John Lewis will return to profit this year, its chairman Dame Sharon White has declared.
In a message to staff this week, White said the employee-owned partnership will ‘more than break-even’.
White added that the business was embarking on ‘quite big changes and quite bold changes,’ according to the Telegraph. It comes days after reports suggesting that the partnership, which includes the John Lewis department store chain and supermarket Waitrose, is preparng to cut jobs.
John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has struggled for several years, posting a £234million loss last year. It has been hit hard by the pandemic and high inflation.
White – who is stepping down in February 2025 at the end of her five-year tenure – previously said that it was aiming to return to sustainable profit by the 2027/28 financial year.
Her comments come after it was reported last week that JLP is planning to slash as many as 11,000 jobs. It is looking at cutting its 76,000 strong workforce by at least 10 per cent.
White said: ‘There’s been an awful lot of change over the past year.
‘But those efforts are starting to show themselves in our commercial performance, we are converting more of our sales into return to partners, and we will more than breakeven this year, which is a great start as we build back to sustainable profit.’
A search for her replacement is under way. A spokeswoman for the partnership declined to comment.
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