John Lewis, owner of UK supermarket brand Waitrose, has published its results for the 52 weeks ended 27th January 2024, reporting that it has returned to profit after experiencing losses in 2022/23.
Waitrose sales were up 5% to £7.7 billion, while its Trading Operating Profit of £1,064 million was an improvement of £170 million on the year.
It reported slower volumes in H1, but saw a full year transaction growth of 6.8%, with its ‘New Lower Prices’ campaign and a volume growth recovery in the last four months of H2 contributing to the turnaround.
The retailer said nearly 2.5 million customers shopped at its fresh food counters, up 4%. It said that its overall customer numbers were up 8.1% to 15 million, delivering eight consecutive quarters of growth in customer numbers.
However, the company did suggest that it may cut some of its workforce in the future, with Nish Kankiwala, chief executive of John Lewis, saying to the PA news agency: “We’re looking at all the opportunities as we improve our ways of working and if there is eventually a reduction in roles, then we’ll use (staff) attrition in the same way as we have done in the past.
“If there are unfortunately, regrettably, redundancies then we’ll talk to our partners first.”
The Partnership also said that it intended to invest £116 million in staff base pay in 2024, but said that it would not be awarding staff a Partnership Bonus this year.
Nish Kankiwala said: “I’m grateful for the hard work and dedication of our Partners in delivering our return to profit while growing our customer numbers, accelerating the pace of transformation and driving significant improvements in productivity.
“It’s great to see an increasing number of customers embrace our Partner-led service and our unique credentials for quality and value, while we deliver exciting new innovations in both Waitrose and John Lewis. I’m very confident in the next phase of our refreshed Plan, which will focus on delighting our retail customers, offering excellent service delivered by our Partners.”
Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “This year we will unashamedly focus on investing back into our retail businesses for our customers, including opening new Waitrose shops and continuing to modernise our brand offering in John Lewis, while prioritising pay for our Partners.”
