John Lewis hires former boss of Jigsaw to kickstart turnaround
JOHN LEWIS has hired the former boss of Jigsaw to kickstart a turnaround at the struggling department store chain.
Peter Ruis has been appointed executive director of the retail giant, replacing Pippa Wicks who left last February after less than three years in the role.
He will return having spent eight years as a director on the company’s executive team from 2005 to 2013.
Mr Ruis was credited with helping John Lewis become fashionable again and oversaw the introduction of the company’s celebrated Christmas adverts, the first of which aired in 2007.
Mr Ruis began in buying roles at Marks & Spencer, Ted Baker and Levi Strauss.
He oversaw an international push as managing director of Anthropologie and took Jigsaw to the catwalk at London Fashion Week during four years as chief executive.
He recently served as chief executive of Indigo, Canada’s largest bookshop chain. His return underlines efforts by the John Lewis Partnership to bring fresh impetus to its turnaround amid competition from rivals such as M&S.
John Lewis posted a loss of £59m in the first half of 2023 and has warned its turnaround will take two years longer than originally planned. The group, which also owns Waitrose, is to refocus on retail. This marks a reversal of the policy of outgoing chairman Dame Sharon White, who launched a controversial move into housebuilding.
Dame Sharon, who said she will step down at the end of her five-year term in 2025, has been overhauling the management. Last year, she appointed turnaround expert Nish Kankiwala as the company’s first-ever chief executive.
As department store boss, Mr Ruis will be tasked with revitalising the brand to appeal to younger shoppers.
The executive director role has a chequered history. Prior to Ms Wicks, the post was occupied by Paula Nickolds. She also left abruptly in 2020, just weeks after she was made de facto second-in-command to Sir Charlie Mayfield, who was chairman at the time.
Mr Ruis led Jigsaw from 2013 until 2018 and is credited with expanding the brand into 11 countries and steering it back into fashion.
It is now popular with celebrities including Holly Willoughby and the Duchess of Cambridge, who briefly worked as a buyer for the brand. During his nine-year tenure at John Lewis, Mr Ruis helped to cast off the department store’s image as a fusty retailer by introducing new brands and launching designer collaborations with wellknown figures such as Alice Temperley.
He was also in charge of the commercial and marketing arms. Mr Ruis’s spell culminated in the store being crowned retailer of the year in 2013.
Mr Ruis said it was a “great privilege” to return to the retailer after a decade.
Naomi Simcock, who has served as interim department store boss for the last 11 months, has been appointed to a newly created role as operations director for John Lewis.
Mr Kankiwala, the chief executive, said: “It’s fantastic to welcome Peter back. He has a deep understanding of customers, brands and product from his 30-year career spanning a variety of major high street and online retailers.”
♦ Sainsbury’s is launching its own electric vehicle (EV) charging business to propel the company beyond retail.
The supermarket is to install 750 EV charging bays across 100 of its stores by the end of the year in a move that will make it one of the top five providers of “ultra-rapid” EV charging stations.
The bays, under the company’s new brand Smart Charge, will allow drivers to fully charge their cars in as little as 30 minutes.