John Lewis and Waitrose to axe 1,000 jobs across stores

The John Lewis Partnership has announced that John Lewis and its sister company Waitrose are set to cut 1,000 job roles across its stores. 

The redundancies are set to affect roles across 34 John Lewis and 331 Waitrose stores, and form part of a widespread restructuring of the company.

Operations managers, assistant team managers, and senior team managers are set to be the most affected employees, as the retailer looks to “simplify” its management staff structure to include only branch managers, deputy branch managers, and team managers.

Earlier this year, the group reported it had swung to a pre-tax loss of £517m in the full-year ended 31 January 2021, down from a profit of £146m reported the year before.

Shortly afterwards, it confirmed that eight John Lewis stores would be closing, placing 1,465 jobs at risk. 

The latest redundancies come as the group said it aims to reduce its costs by £300m annually in order to fund £800m worth of investments.

Alternative roles will supposedly be sought for those who want to stay, with voluntary redundancies also intended to limit the number of compulsory redundancies at the group.

A spokesperson for the partnership told Retail Sector: “We have announced to our partners our intention to simplify our management structures in Waitrose and John Lewis stores, which will allow us to reinvest in what matters most to our customers.”