‘John Lewis doesn’t sell proper suits any more’
Former boss blasts the troubled retailer:
FORMER John Lewis boss andy Street has slammed the troubled retailer – even complaining it doesn’t ‘sell proper suits any more’.
In another setback for the group behind the department store chain and Waitrose supermarkets, Street questioned boss dame Sharon White’s strategy.
and he complained about the choice shoppers have in menswear, adding he prefers to go to local tailors.
‘They don’t sell proper suits any more,’ said Street, who ran John Lewis for nine years until 2016 and is now the Tory mayor of the West Midlands. The comments, in an interview with Bloomberg, underscore the battle the partnership – whose first store was opened in 1864 – is facing to convince critics it is on the mend.
White is attempting to turn around the loss-making business. But she has faced backlash from within the employee- owned group. In a non-binding vote earlier this month on her performance last year, just four of 55 of the company’s governing council backed her.
John Lewis crashed to a loss of £234m last year with staff not handed an annual bonus in a historic blow, while former civil servant White took home a pay packet of almost £1m.
There have also been fears the retailer may lose its mutual-status as White hunts to raise as much as £2bn to save the business.
Echoing those concerns, Street said: ‘They should not be pursuing a demutualisation or bringing in private funding.
‘The whole point of the John Lewis Partnership is that it’s owned by its employees for their longterm well-being.
‘And I do not believe you can sell off a part of it and still achieve that objective, and I think the objective must be held paramount like the North Star.’ The crisis at John Lewis has sent shockwaves through the retail sector, with High Street consultant Mary Portas warning it has lost its soul.
And Street added: ‘It would be a genuine tragedy if part of it was to be sold.’ ahead of the vote earlier this month, White told employee representatives: ‘I want to be absolutely categorical.
‘The John Lewis Partnership will always be an employee- owned business – no ifs, no buts.
‘ There is absolutely no question of demutualisation.’ Street ( pictured) also criticised the firm for seeking to diversify beyond its retail business, including a £500m deal with asset manager abdrn to build 1,000 rental homes.
He said: ‘I genuinely don’t know why they’ve decided to do that.’
Global data retail analyst Neil Saunders, who used to be a partner at John Lewis, said White needed to ‘get back to the retail basics’ as ‘without retail, there isn’t a business’.