Britain’s John Lewis turns away from other stores after the Covid-19 earthquake

The John Lewis Partnership has warned that more of its stores will close permanently after the “economic earthquake” of Covid-19 led to the loss of Britain’s largest employee-owned group of 517 million pounds.

Multiple closings have increased pressure on store-based groups that are already struggling with tight margins and intense competition from purely online players.

156-year-old John Lewis had already cut the number of stores to 42, after closing eight in July, affecting 1,300 jobs as he grappled with the fallout from the crisis.

“Although difficult, there is no escaping the fact that some areas can no longer profitably maintain John Lewis,” said Chairman Sharon White.

Talks were underway with the property owners and the warehouses were expected to be scrapped by the end of March.

Ms. White told reporters the lockdowns were “difficult but absolutely necessary decisions to be a lean, simple and fast action.”

She said the crisis has caused a massive shift in the way Britons want to shop with the partnership, which also operates the Waitrose supermarket chain of 332 stores – “the value of the change will likely be a decade in one year.”

“Our judgment is that these shopping habits have changed irreversibly,” she added.

The heavy loss of the partnership for the year ended 30 January versus a profit of 146 million pounds in 2019-20 reflected an exceptional costs of 648 million pounds, mainly the devaluation of John Lewis stores due to the shift to the Internet, as well as the costs of restructuring and redundancy.

John Lewis stores are now kept on their balance sheet at half the value they were prior to the cuts this year and last year.

Before the pandemic, the group estimated that £ 6 out of every £ 10 spent online with John Lewis was driven by its stores. This has dropped to £ 3 for every £ 10.

Ms. White detailed a five-year recovery plan last October that would see the partnership invest to expand its online business and improve its stores, diversify beyond retail, form more partnerships and strive for efficiency savings.

It plans to invest £ 800m in 2021-22 to support the transition and expected financial results, including liquidity, debt and earnings ratio before exceptional cases, which were £ 131m in 2020/21, to worsen in 2021-22 before improving and then improving in Later years. Reuters

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