Bonus in doubt at John Lewis
CHAIR WARNS OF TOUGH TIMES AHEAD
THE boss of John Lewis says it will be “tough” to pay staff an annual bonus – as she warned many Brits would be “quite a bit poorer” over the coming year.
The worker-owned retailer restored the bonus last year after scrapping it in 2020 for the first time since 1953.
But, repeating a warning from September, chair Dame Sharon White admitted its staff – known as partners – were aware a repeat was up in the air.
“I think it is going to be tough and they know it’s going to be tough,” she said.
It came as Dame Sharon revealed more about customers’ spending habits ahead of Christmas, when the John Lewis Partnership normally makes twothirds of its annual profit. “Customers are spending but in an intentional and more thoughtful way,” she told business lobby group the CBI’s annual conference in Birmingham. Revealing how customers were delaying “big-ticket” items such as sofas, she added: “The issue for the next 12 months is that there are a lot of us who are going to be quite a bit poorer.”
Separately, Dame Sharon said a business rates revaluation in last week’s Autumn Statement would deliver “material savings” for the group, which has 36 John Lewis department stores and more than 300 Waitrose supermarkets.