John Lewis boss to step down after tough Christmas period at department store
Written by News on 09/01/2020
John Lewis boss Paula Nickolds is to step down after the department store chain reported falling Christmas sales and warned of lower profits.
The retailer was one of a number of high street big names revealing they had suffered a tough festive period – with sales also dipping at Marks & Spencer while supermarket giant Tesco eked out a 0.1% increase in the UK.
John Lewis Partnership (JLP) said the departure of Ms Nickolds was the result of a shake-up integrating the teams behind its department store brand John Lewis – which she currently leads – and its supermarket chain Waitrose.
Ms Nickolds, who has worked at JLP for 25 years and has been managing director of John Lewis since 2017, will leave the partnership in February.
The announcement came as trading figures for John Lewis showed a 2% fall in like-for-like sales over the seven weeks from 17 November to 4 January.
A stellar performance over Black Friday, when sales rose 10%, could not be matched over the rest of the festive period when the chain saw “more subdued demand” – and annual profits are expected to be “substantially down on last year”.
Sister brand Waitrose did better, with sales up 0.4% despite a weak grocery market but the overall partnership is still on course to report underlying profits “significantly lower than last year”.
Chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield warned that the board will have to decide next month “whether it is prudent” for the employee-owned business to pay its usual annual bonus to its 80,000 partners.
That was similar to a warning given last year – and though in the end there was still a staff pay-out, it was the lowest by the company for 66 years.
Meanwhile there were more bleak figures from Marks & Spencer, which has been struggling for years to reverse demand in its clothing and home ranges.
Chief executive Steve Rowe said there had been a “strong start” to the quarter – covering the 13 weeks to 28 December – followed by a “challenging trading environment in the lead-up to Christmas”, leaving like-for-like sales down by 1.7%.
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(c) Sky News 2020: John Lewis boss to step down after tough Christmas period at department store
