Windfall for ousted John Lewis bosses

THE former bosses of John Lewis and Wait- rose have walked away with payouts of close to £1m despite the staff-owned firm preparing for sales to drop by up to a third.

Paula Nickolds ( pictured), 47, the former managing director of John Lewis’s department stores, received £940,000 while Rob Collins, the former managing director of Waitrose, was handed £890,000.

The pair left in recent months as part of a chaotic and radical restructuring, which also saw 475 head office and Waitrose staff made redundant.

The huge pay- offs came as 14,000 staff were placed on furlough, executives took a 20pc pay reduction and £435m of costs were cut in the fight for survival during the lockdown. Yesterday, chairman Dame Sharon White said sales in department stores fell 17pc since the middle of March, when its 51 stores closed, as she warned they could fall by up to 35pc this year.

Online sales have increased 84pc year-onyear since the middle of March with Scrabble, kitchen equipment, and work-from-home items selling well. But shoppers have shunned goods such as sofas.

Waitrose reported year- on-year sales growth of 8pc since January 26, helped by stockpiling and a boost in delivery capacity by 50pc.

The supermarket, which will cut ties with delivery partner Ocado in September, could lose up to 5pc of its sales this year if the economy takes a downturn.

White said: ‘The partnership has been trading for nearly a century. It has survived a world war and bombings, economic crashes and crises.

‘We shall also come through Covid-19 too and emerge stronger.’

John Lewis’s stores were already fighting for their place on the High Street before the crisis hit.

Profits at the partnership, which includes John Lewis and Waitrose, fell from £452m three years ago to £146m last year. The department store arm posted a £37m loss. Bosses also slashed the staff bonus to £370 each, the lowest level since 1953.

To survive the crisis White has cut £100m of marketing spend, which previously went on high- budget adverts such as the Edgar the Dragon Christmas advert. John Lewis has also reduced capital expenditure by £200m this year and will save £135m from the 12-month business rates holiday. It has deferred payment of VAT until March 2021, negotiated rent relief, and maintains £900m of cash and £500m of unused loans. The executive pay cuts mean White’s salary will fall a fifth from £990,000 to £792,000, initially for three months. There are 51 John Lewis stores in the UK, employing 28,000 staff, and 349 Waitrose stores, employing 52,000 people.