Online jobs drive from John Lewis

THE John Lewis Partnership is recruiting for more than 150 roles in engineering and delivery driving as part of a big investment in its online shops.

The retail giant, which also owns Waitrose supermarket, said its recruitment drive will help grow its online stores, which together have more than 55 million visits a month.

Online sales have rocketed in the wake of the home delivery boom prompted by pandemic closures.

They now make up almost 70 per cent of John Lewis’s total sales, while Waitrose has seen its online share quadruple from 5% in 2020 to nearly 20% this year. It comes after John Lewis last month said it was bringing back its 3% staff bonus, after scrapping payouts last year for the first time since 1953.

But plans to grow the business’s online team follows recent sweeping job cuts across its high street stores.

Last July, the group said it planned to axe a further 1,000 jobs after closing 16 department stores, amounting to nearly 4,000 total job cuts in just over a year.

The overhaul enabled John Lewis to slash costs by £170 million, while it reported a strong pre-tax profit rise to £181m in the year to January 29.

The retailer said last week it paid off a £150m bank loan before it was due, to avoid unnecessary interest charges and to prepare for a possible UK recession.

The head office vacancies announced today include software, cloud platform, and data engineers to help innovate the business and grow its shopping apps.