John Lewis set for significantly higher annual profits as overhaul pays off

The John Lewis Partnership has revealed sharply narrowed half-year losses and said annual profits would be “significantly” higher as its overhaul starts to bear fruit.

The employee-owned group, which runs the department store chain and Waitrose supermarket arm, reported pre-tax losses of £30 million for the six months to July 27, down 49% on a year earlier.

The John Lewis department store business saw half-year sales fall 3% to £2 billion, but Waitrose notched up 5% sales growth as average prices rose just over 2%.

The group said while the consumer and economic backdrop was “uncertain”, it was confident of a marked improvement in underlying profits at the full-year stage.

John Lewis said: “We have historically delivered the majority of our profits in the second half of the year.

“Despite the environment for our customers remaining uncertain, we expect to maintain financial momentum from consistent delivery of our multi-year transformation.

“As a result, we are confident that full-year pre-exceptional profits should be significantly above the £42 million we reported in 2023-24.”

Nish Kankiwala, chief executive of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “These results confirm that our transformation plan is working and we expect profits to grow significantly for the full year, a marked improvement from where we were two years ago.”

The group has been leading an overhaul to strip out costs, revealing in August that it was cutting 153 jobs at the department store business as part of a shake-up of its store teams to improve customer service.

This week, it also brought back its “never knowingly undersold” price pledge in a major U-turn after ditching the commitment two years ago over concerns it what less relevant to shoppers.

Published: 12/09/2024 by Radio NewsHub