Chairman of John Lewis Partnership said 2017 had been a ‘challenging year’
The owner of Waitrose and John Lewis department stores has emerged as the latest victim of difficult conditions on the high street after it reported a massive plunge in annual profits and said that it would cut its staff bonus to five per cent of salary this year.
John Lewis Partnership today said that while revenues climbed by 1.8 per cent to £10.2bn, the pre-tax profits had fallen 77 per cent to £103.9m in the year to the end of January.
Meanwhile, bonuses for 84,000 staff at John Lewis and Waitrose have been cut for the fifth year in a row.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership said: ‘As we anticipated, 2017 was a challenging year. Consumer demand was subdued and we made significant changes to operations across the partnership which affected many partners.’ #
He added: ‘We therefore anticipate further pressure on profits.’
Yesterday, struggling retailer New Look had announced plans to shut 60 stores which could affect around 1,000 jobs in the UK.Earlier that, Toys R Us and Maplin had collapsed into administration, putting around 5,000 jobs at risk.
Leave a Comment