Latest news with #SharonWhite
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
John Lewis considers awarding staff bonus for first time in four years
John Lewis is poised to reinstate its prized staff bonus for the first time in four years after upbeat trading put it on course for higher profits. The retail partnership, one of Britain's largest mutuals, is considering paying out the bonus to 69,000 workers after a turnaround in performance at its flagship stores. According to internal documents, the group's board will be asked to recommend reinstating the payout if pre-tax profits reach £200m for the year to February 2026. Profits last year totalled £126m, up from £42m, and sales are expected to have increased in the first half of 2025 – leaving it well positioned to hit the milestone. The documents, seen by the Financial Times, said John Lewis expected to pass the £200m threshold and added 'to get there we need to keep focused on the right things and deliver our plans'. Bringing back the payout would mark a major win for Jason Tarry, the new chairman who joined the retailer last September replacing Dame Sharon White. The former UK chief of Tesco has steered a turnaround drive at the partnership, with bosses saying they are now 'relentlessly focused' on retail again having dabbled in financial services and housing. John Lewis, which also owns grocer Waitrose, first cancelled the prized payout in 2020 having paid the bonus every year since 1953. It was briefly reinstated in 2022 but has not been paid since amid a tougher trading environment. Despite tripling profits last year, the group said it had 'prioritised' higher pay for staff as well as other investments instead of paying the bonus. The move prompted anger from members, who campaigned to get the payout reinstated. A staff petition launched earlier this year said that workers were 'working harder than ever' but many were 'getting less recognition'. 'The bonus meant something more than just money. It was a sign that the company saw and appreciated us,' the letter said. John Lewis has faced a variety of struggles in recent years, including navigating the pandemic as well as rising levels of online shopping destroying trading in its bricks-and-mortar stores. In 2021, under Dame Sharon, it suffered a £648m loss because of a significant write-down on the value of its shops as well as restructuring costs. On the back of this, the retailer launched a five year cost-cutting plan to try and return to profit. The partnership paid a record £116m in salaries last year and raised its minimum pay to £11.55 an hour. Reviving the payout hinges on trading remaining successful for the rest of the year. A John Lewis spokesman said: 'As we said at our full year results in March, we expect to increase our profitability in the coming year.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Independent
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Olympic rower and former cabinet secretary made peers
Olympic gold medallist Katherine Grainger and former cabinet secretary Simon Case have been given peerages, Downing Street has announced. The pair, along with former national security adviser Tim Barrow and former John Lewis chairwoman Sharon White, will join the House of Lords as non-aligned crossbench peers. Baroness Grainger, now chairwoman of the British Olympic Association (BOA), is Britain's most decorated female rower. In addition to winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics, she won four silver medals – in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2016 – and six world championship titles. Baroness Grainger then spent eight years as chairwoman of UK Sport before leaving the post this year and taking up the leadership of the BOA. Lord Case became cabinet secretary in September 2020, having previously served as private secretary to the Duke of Cambridge. He stepped down at the end of 2024, having led the Civil Service during the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the funeral of Elizabeth II. But his tenure was not without controversy, as he was forced to recuse himself from leading an investigation into the 'Partygate' scandal following allegations his office had held a Christmas event during lockdown. Lord Case was not one of those fined over the scandal. Lord Barrow played a key role in Brexit negotiations as the UK's representative to the EU between 2017 and 2021, before becoming national security adviser under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. He had been lined up by Mr Sunak to take over as ambassador to the US, but the change of government last year led to Sir Keir Starmer appointing Lord Peter Mandelson instead. Baroness White was the first black person and second woman to become a permanent secretary at the Treasury, before serving as CEO of Ofcom between 2015 and 2019. She then chaired John Lewis between 2020 and 2024.
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
John Lewis's chair Jason Tarry to earn more than £1.3m this year
John Lewis's chair Jason Tarry is to be paid more than £1.3m this year – about a fifth more than his predecessor, Sharon White – as he takes a more hands-on role. The former Tesco executive, who joined the group that owns Waitrose and a fleet of department stores in September last year, earned £415,000 in his first four and a half months in the job, including benefits and pension payments. That put him on a par with his predecessor who earned £900,000 in basic pay and £1.1m including pension and other benefits, according to the annual report from the John Lewis Partnership which the Guardian has seen. However, the company said Tarry's pay had been 'adjusted' from 1 April this year so that it was 'equalised to the amount paid to the chief executive officer to reflect the recalibration of the role'. John Lewis's chief executive Nish Kankiwala, who stepped down in March after two years in the role, is understood to have received between £1.3m and £1.35m in total remuneration last year – as the group's highest paid director. The chief executive role no longer exists at the retailer. That pay package was worth 53 times the average basic pay of a non-management John Lewis worker. A John Lewis Partnership spokesperson said: 'Following the merger of the CEO and chairman roles, the remuneration committee recommended aligning the chairman's compensation with that of the CEO. This reflects the chairman's expanded responsibilities in leading both the executive team and the partnership board.' The bump up in pay for Tarry comes as the company has increased hourly pay for workers who were given a 7.4% pay rise this year, to a minimum rate of £11.55 an hour. That rate of pay puts it behind major rivals such as Marks & Spencer. The group also reduced the average number of people it employs by about 4,000 to 69,000 people last year after a 3,500 reduction the year before, and skipped the bonus to workers for the fourth time in five years this March even after underlying annual profit rose from £42m to £126m. The group is also cutting costs by limiting benefits, such as a discount card, for former workers and selling off its staff golf club. From 31 August, any leavers with more than 15 years service will only retain their benefits for the same number of years they worked for the group. Until now, leavers must have accrued between 15 and 25 years' service and met certain other criteria to receive a lifetime discount and access to the group's staff hotels. A JLP spokesperson said: 'We're changing our leavers benefits to enable us to more than double the number of our Partners who are eligible. We're incredibly proud of this package, which rewards loyalty and goes well beyond those offered by competitors. The company is in the midst of a turnaround plan after diving to a loss during the Covid pandemic when it was forced to close all stores during lockdowns. It has pledged to open more Waitrose stores this year and invest in existing stores after closing 16 department stores and at least 20 Waitrose outlets and cutting thousands of head office jobs since the pandemic.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
John Lewis axes bonus for third year in a row despite profits surge
John Lewis has axed its staff bonus for the third year in succession despite making its biggest profits since 2022. Bosses at Britain's highest profile partnership, which runs John Lewis department stores and the Waitrose supermarket chain, said they had decided to prioritise an increases in regular pay and £600 million of investment over a bonus. Partners have not received a bonus for four out of the last five years, a period when the business has struggled with heavy losses, the impact of the pandemic lockdowns and the cost of living crisis. The last bonus was a 3% distribution for the 21/22 financial year when the partnership made a pre-tax profit of £181 million. Underlying pre-tax profits for the year to the 25 January tripled from £42 million to £126 million, the highest for three years, on sales of £12.8 billion, up 3%. Chairman Jason Tarry, a former senior Tesco executive who replaced Dame Sharon White last year, described the results as 'solid' but said there was 'much more still to do.' He said the decision to not pay a bonus had been 'difficult' but had been taken because of the need to restore base pay to competitive levels and invest in technology. He said 'in an ideal world' the business would pay a bonus as well as a pay rise and the it was 'determined' to bring back the bonus as soon as conditions allow. The business will face a £45 million increase in costs in the current year as a result of the rise in employer National Insurance contributions. Waitrose adjusted operating profit more than doubled to £227 million on sales up 4.4% at £8 billion. John Lewis made operating profits to £45 million on unchanged sales of £4.8 billion. The first half saw a 3% decrease in sales and a £24 million drop in profit due to investments in growth. A 'marked improvement' in the second half led to a 3% increase in sales and £8 million growth in profits. Tarry said: 'These are solid results, which show that our customers are responding well to our investments in quality products, value and service. We have made good progress with much more still to do. ' John Lewis operates 34 shops across the UK as well as Waitrose has 315 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 47 convenience branches, and another 29 shops at Welcome Break locations
Reuters
31-01-2025
- Business
- Reuters
UK's John Lewis says on track for profit growth after report of weak trading
LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - British retailer the John Lewis Partnership said on Friday it remained on track to deliver "significantly higher" annual profit after a media report that it had told staff it was unlikely to hit an internal target. The Telegraph cited internal documents from the partnership saying it was now unlikely to achieve hoped-for profits of 131 million pounds ($163 million) for the year to end-January 2025. The newspaper said the partnership blamed 'lower consumer confidence and weaker than expected market confidence' for both its John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarket chain missing their sales target in the month to Dec. 21 - a period that does not cover the key Christmas trading days and new year sale period. In response to the article, a partnership spokesperson said: "As we said in September, we remain on track to deliver full year pre-exceptional profits significantly above the 42 million pounds we reported in 2023/24 and we will update on our performance at our results in March.' In September, the employee-owned partnership reported a reduction in first-half losses to 5 million pounds. Former Tesco (TSCO.L), opens new tab executive Jason Tarry succeeded Sharon White as chair of the partnership in September. The partnership's department store division in particular has had a difficult few years as it battled first the COVID pandemic and then a cost of living crisis. It closed stores and cut jobs. But it said in September, it was beginning to benefit from the turnaround plan launched by White in 2020 that sought to boost the appeal of its brands and invest in technology in addition to cutting costs. Full-year results are scheduled for March 13. Official data published on Jan. 17 showed overall UK retail sales unexpectedly fell in December.
