John Lewis ‘will return to profit this year’, White insists

John Lewis Partnership chair, Dame Sharon White, has said the business will return to profit this year, The Telegraph has reported, following reports that up to 11,000 jobs could be cut under the retailer’s turnaround plan.  

White reportedly told workers that the retail business would “more than break-even” after suffering a £234m loss last year. 

Speaking in a video message, White told staff to prepare for “quite big changes and quite bold changes”. 

The announcement follows news that John Lewis was considering cutting at least 10% of its staff over the next five years. The business will also halve its workers’ redundancy pay in a move to cut costs. 

Additionally, the retail business is in the process of cutting £900m worth of costs out of the company. 

White told The Telegraph: “There’s been an awful lot of change over the past year. But those efforts are starting to show themselves in our commercial performance; we are converting more of our sales into return to partners, and we will more than break even this year, which is a great start as we build back to sustainable profit for the business.”

Early on in January, John Lewis reappointed one of its former directors, ex-Jigsaw boss Peter Ruis, to manage its department store business. He will be responsible for leading the business “through the next phase of its transformation”.