John Lewis to create 500 jobs at delivery site leased from Tesco

JOHN LEWIS has rented a new warehouse from Tesco to keep up with the boom in online orders.

The move comes after it cut nearly 4,000 jobs in shops since the onset of the pandemic as it bid farewell to 16 department stores. The mutual, which also owns Waitrose, said it will create 500 jobs at the depot, which is due to open next summer in Milton Keynes. It will handle customer orders for fashion, small home furnishing items and technology products.

It said internet orders now account for 60pc of total sales, an increase from 40pc during lockdowns. It plans to invest £50m in the website and its John Lewis app, with a further £100m allocated to online growth as part of its wider turnaround strategy. Andrew Murphy, executive director of operations, said the new site will ensure “we can keep pace with customer demand”.

He added that John Lewis should be able to combine more orders and reduce the number of packages it sends out.

The warehouse, leased for 11 years, will become John Lewis’s second largest distribution centre, located just four miles away from another vast depot at Magna Park in Milton Keynes.

Mr Murphy said: “This one-of-a-kind distribution centre represents a fantastic opportunity to power the continued growth of Johnlewis.com.”

Before last March, every £6 in £10 spent on its websites was driven by its shops. That figure is now just £3 in £10.

Dame Sharon White, who joined in February last year, is spearheading a turnaround. Under her watch, John Lewis has been branching into housing and offering more services, including insurance and credit cards.

It has already identified space for around 7,000 rental homes across its property portfolio, above Waitrose supermarkets or next to distribution centres. It will also open two dozen mini John Lewis shops closer to where people work and live as it moves away from its reliance on city centres, and sell more John Lewis products in Waitrose.

Last month it rolled out its furniture rental service nationwide, doubling its products to more than 200 lines.

Separately, it signed a three-year lease for another smaller distribution centre in Leicestershire.

‘This one-of-a-kind centre represents a fantastic opportunity to power the growth of Johnlewis.com’