John Lewis has suggested it may move away from its 100% employee ownership model in a bid to reinvent the company and to raise investment.
Last week, John Lewis warned of job cuts and informed staff that they would not be receiving a bonus for only the second time since 1953, after posting an annual loss of £234m. In a letter to staff, chairman Dame Sharon White raised the possibility of job losses as part of efforts “to become more efficient and productive”.
Changing the partnership model would signal a major departure for John Lewis, which runs the department store chain, Waitrose supermarkets and an online business. The retailer reported an annual loss of £234m as costs soared and sales fell dramatically.
Sharon White has said she is exploring a plan to change the company’s mutual structure in an attempt to raise up to £2b of new investment, according to The Sunday Times, which also reported that the group would only be looking to sell a minority stake and attempting to maintain majority employee ownership.
Staff on the retailer’s partnership council (about 60 staff) would be asked to vote on the new ownership arrangements.
In the face of tough trading conditions, the firm has been looking to diversify its operations, including a move into the “build to rent” property business.
The John Lewis Partnership said: “We’ve always said we would seek partnerships to help fund our transformation and exciting growth plans. Our partners, who own the business, will be the first to hear about any developments.”
The John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s biggest employee-owned business with around 74,000 staff, known as partners. The company was founded in 1864 and the partnership created as an experiment into a new, fairer way of doing business by including staff in decision-making.
Today, the group has 34 John Lewis shops and 329 Waitrose shops, along with its retail websites.
