Days, after news broke that a clumsily circulated email memo had spooked a large number of John Lewis managers to believe that redundancies were pending, comes the news from Sharon White that the business is on course to achieve breakeven.
With redundancy liabilities now significantly reduced, the retailer is understood to be poised to reduce overall headcount across John Lewis and Waitrose by as many as 11,000 over the next few years. Whilst some of this will be achieved by not replacing departing partners (staff), redundancies will begin to be made as part of a programme to improve financial performance.
A spokesperson from John Lewis said in a statement: “The John Lewis Partnership has a plan to return to profit, which involves investing heavily to enhance our customer offer, technology, stores and becoming more efficient. This is working and performance is improving but, as we have already announced, that sadly means reducing the number of partners we need.”
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