John Lewis is planning to restructure its department store management teams in a move likely to herald more job losses as the mutual prepares to welcome Jason Tarry as its new chairman.
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which also owns the supermarket chain Waitrose, will set out a revamp of the management teams at its 34 John Lewis stores after it has concluded a reorganisation of shop-floor staff.
The department store division’s newly arrived boss, Peter Ruis, is pushing through plans to remove the distinction between back-office and front-of-house roles, with the aim of having more partners in the right parts of stores at the right time.
Insiders say Jason Tarry’s arrival is being welcomed by staff. He has retail experience, as the boss of Tesco UK, “so partners think he will see their point of view from the sales floor”
CHRIS RADBURN/REUTERS
About 7,000 staff were recently consulted over proposed changes to their job descriptions. However, redundancies as a result of this exercise are expected to be limited to 153 partners.
“The restructure is not going down well. Partners are at a low ebb,” said one insider. The partnership is in the process of culling as many as 11,000 jobs over the next five years.
Separately, JLP will begin rolling out a joined-up loyalty programme by the end of this year — an initiative that has been in the works for several years. This is likely to enable members of the scheme to reap savings across both John Lewis and Waitrose, which operate their own discrete loyalty programmes at present.
Holders of a My Waitrose card are entitled to a free coffee in stores alongside any purchase and receive money-off vouchers on a weekly basis. Members of the “My John Lewis” scheme receive personalised offers and access to special events, such as a beauty masterclass.
Management want to remove the distinction between back-office and front-of-house roles
JOHN LEWIS/JAMES MACKENZIE
This month Dame Sharon White steps down as the partnership’s chairwoman after a tumultuous near-five-year tenure. She is being succeeded by Tarry, the former boss of Tesco’s UK business, who faces an uphill battle to turn around the fortunes of John Lewis and revive staff morale after a failure to pay an annual bonus for the third time in four years.
“Jason Tarry’s arrival is giving a bit of hope to partners. He has retail experience, so partners think he will see their point of view from the sales floor. They are hoping he is going to come in and put us back on track,” the insider said.
The partnership’s interim results this month are expected to show that its department stores are continuing to struggle amid weak sales of clothing and homewares. However, its new autumn-winter womenswear range has been well received.
Performance at Waitrose has been improving after the supermarket chain suffered during the cost of living crisis. It has begun to grow its market share for the first time in two years, according to the research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
Although the chairmanship is an executive position at JLP, White appointed Nish Kankiwala, the former Hovis boss, to work under her as chief executive in March last year. Kankiwala is expected to depart next March, when his two-year fixed contract expires.