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John Lewis Partnership
Company Name = John Lewis Partnership Company Type = Partnership (plc) Loundation = Oxford Street, London (1864) Location = London Key_people = Sir Stuart Hampson, Chairman Charlie Mayfield, Managing Director Num Employees = 63,000 (2005) Industry = Retail Products = Clothing, cosmetics, housewares Revenue = £4.758 million GBP (2005) Homepage = John Lewis Partnership
The is a major United Kingdom retailer, operating department stores and, through its Waitrose subsidiary, upper-class supermarkets. Unusually, it is a partnership, with the company held in trust on behalf of its employees (called ) who receive an annual profit distribution which is usually a significant fraction of their annual salary.
The partnership is an investor in and an operational partner of the Ocado internet grocery business, which supplies Waitrose brand food.
History
The business was founded in 1864 when John Lewis set up a draper's shop in Oxford Street, London, which developed into a department store. In 1905 he bought the Peter Jones store in Sloane Square. In 1920 his son, John Spedan Lewis, expanded earlier power-sharing policies by sharing the profits the business made among the employees. The democratic nature and profit-sharing basis of the business were developed into a formal partnership structure and Spedan Lewis bequeathed the company to his employees. By May 2005, over 63,000 Partners worked for the John Lewis Partnership.
The principle and slogan was adopted in 1925. It was created by Spedan Lewis in 1925 and was applied to the company's Peter Jones store in Sloane Square, London. It stated that if a customer could buy the same item cheaper elsewhere they would refund the difference. Today, the company still honours this pledge, and many of their competitors also offer such a pledge. The principle has been more refined, most notably to exclude online shopping, however they are the only large retailer that will match the price with any UK shop, not restricting it to a local area. The policy is also to monitor local competitors and reduce the shelf edge price if they are being 'undersold'. Staff (Partners) also get paid £2 for every time they notify the company of an occasion where they are being 'undersold'.
The shop on Oxford Street was opened in 1960, the original buildings having been bombed. The sculpture by Barbara Hepworth was added in 1962.
On 27th April 1933 John Lewis Partnership bought Jessops of Nottingham. This store was the first John Lewis outside London. The store kept the name "Jessops" until 2002, when after a refurbishment the store was renamed as simply John Lewis. The partnership has also purchased a number of other regional department stores, as well as developing stores in new locations. As of 2005 it has plans to open a new department store every year for the next few years, which is probably the most ambitious expansion programme in its history.
Financial performance
Figures in the above table are for 52 week periods to late January and are in British Pounds (millions). The accounts include profits both before and after partnership bonuses. While the partnership bonus takes the place of the dividend which might be paid if John Lewis was a limited company, on the basis of the tax charges discloses in the accounts, it appears that most or all of it is accepted as tax deductible remuneration by the Inland Revenue. Profit figures before and after the partnership bonus are both shown, but arguably neither of them is strictly comparable to "profit before tax" of a limited company, which is the most widely quoted profit line in the United Kingdom. This is because the group might need to pay higher basic salaries if it was a listed company and therefore did not make an unusually large profit distribution to its staff. Net profit (ie profit after tax) is also shown; this is the profit line normally quoted for US companies.
Financial section of John Lewis' website: 1.
Department storesAs of 2005 the partnership operates 27 department stores. Most of these trade as John Lewis but some trade under other names such as Peter Jones, Robert Sayle, Knight & Lee and Caleys. The stores are in a mixture of city centre and regional shopping centre locations. They are generally the largest or second largest department store in their local market. The flagship Oxford Street store in London remains the largest John Lewis outlet in the UK. The stores are moderately upmarket and are perceived as a bastion of the British middle class.
In Greater London*Brent Cross *Chelsea, Peter Jones *Kingston-upon-Thames *Oxford Street
In South East England*Bluewater *High Wycombe *Milton Keynes *Reading 2001) *Southampton *Southsea (under the Knight & Lee name) *Wallingford *Watford (under the Trewins name until 2001) *Welwyn Garden City *Windsor (under the Caleys name)
In South West England*Bristol
In the East of England*Cambridge (under the Robert Sayle name) (New store opening in 2007) *Norwich (under the Bonds (department store) name until 2001) *Peterborough
In the East Midlands*Nottingham (under the Jessops of Nottingham name until 2002)
In the West Midlands*Cheadle *Solihull
In Yorkshire and the Humber*Sheffield (under the Cole Brothers name until 2002)
In the North West*Cheadle, Greater Manchester *Liverpool (under the George Henry Lee name until 2001) *Trafford Centre
In the North East* Newcastle upon Tyne (under the John Lewis Newcastle/Bainbridge name until 2002)
In Scotland*Aberdeen *Edinburgh *Glasgow
In Northern IrelandIn June 2004 John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and ten miles from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005.
In Wales*Cardiff (planned, as part of the redevelopment)
Supermarkets
Waitrose The John Lewis Partnership also owns Waitrose, an upmarket supermarket chain which has over 165 branches and 27,000 partners. Waitrose trades mainly in London and the South of England, and was originally formed by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The company was taken over by The John Lewis Partnership in 1937. The acquisition of 22 Safeway branches in 2004 greatly increased the size of the company and saw branches open in the North of England for the first time.
External links
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