The John Lewis Partnership has warned over further store closures as it swung to a £517 million annual loss for 53 weeks to the end of January 2021 after the pandemic battered its department stores. This compared to profits of £146 million the previous year. They also announced that as the outlook was still uncertain they would continue to accept business rates relief until June 2021. Waitrose sales grew to £1.14 billion compared to £1.06 billion, while John Lewis sales declined to £554 million after £734 million last year. On the other hand, the ecommerce stores for both Waitrose and John Lewis enjoyed surging growth.
The group, which also owns upmarket grocery chain Waitrose, said it does not expect all its John Lewis shops to reopen at the end of the current lockdown. It did not specify how many of its 42 John Lewis shops are under threat, but confirmed it was in talks with landlords and would make a final decision at the end of March. Chair, Sharon White, commented: “All our John Lewis stores need to be exciting places to shop, more reflective of the tastes and interests of local customers. This will require investment and we are working closely with landlords and local authorities. We are keen to play our part in the revitalisation of the high street.
“Hard as it is, there is no getting away from the fact that some areas can no longer profitably sustain a John Lewis store. Regrettably, we do not expect to reopen all our John Lewis shops at the end of lockdown, which will also have implications for our supply chain. We are currently in discussions with landlords and final decisions are expected by the end of March.”
A John Lewis Partnership spokesman said the firm would always try to redeploy elsewhere in the business, with redundancies a “last resort”. Reports suggested another eight stores were earmarked to be shut, on top of the eight that closed down last year alongside seven loss-making Waitrose stores. The latest imminent store closures suggests that further jobs could be at risk, after 1300 were impacted by the eight John Lewis store closures last year.
