Following a “challenging set of results in 2022/23” John Lewis group made a £120m improvement turning a loss of £78m into a £42m profit before tax and exceptional items for 2023. With profit before tax (PBT) of £56m, up from a loss of £234m in the previous year.
Group sales (Waitrose and John Lewis combined) reached £12.4bn, up by £176m (1%) from a year earlier, with customer numbers across the Partnership up by one million, to reach 22.6m.
Profit growth was supported by a further £111m of productivity improvements in the year. This brings recurring productivity savings since the start of the Partnership plan in January 2021 to £420m, on track against the target of £900m by 2027/28.
Despite the move to a profit the partnership decided they did not believe it would be right to award a Partnership Bonus this year however they have increased overall pay by £116m in 2024 – a record investment.
Waitrose Results
Sales were up 5% to £7.7bn and a record number of customers chose to shop with Waitrose. Trading Operating Profit of £1,064m improved by £170m. Sales growth, combined with strong delivery of productivity programmes across stores, cost of goods and supply chain underpinned this improvement. For the full year, volume was down 1.5% and average item price up by 6.6%.
Waitrose has now delivered eight consecutive quarters of growth in customer numbers with customer numbers up 8.1% to 15.0m. Thanks to an investment of £100m in lower prices and a major replatforming of supply systems.
John Lewis Results
John Lewis sales were £4.8bn, down 4%, but Trading Operating Profit of £689m was £13m better year-on-year. Sales in Fashion, including Beauty, were up on the year while there were weaker sales in Home and Technology. John Lewis attracted a record 13.4m customers, underlining the reach of the brand.
In 2023/24, John Lewis Partnerships focus has been on returning to profitability through improved trading and productivity. In 2024/25, they expect continued improvement in key financial performance measures: Profit before tax, Partnership Bonus and exceptional items (PBTBE), Debt ratio and Operating profit as a percentage of sales.
They have also refreshed their plans, and are instigating a year of significant investment – £542m planned (over 70% up on the year) – much of which will focus on modernising the technology, refreshing shops and simplifying how they work.
The business has plans to open new Waitrose shops in areas where the brand is under-served and 80 refurbishments of existing stores are planned over the next three years.
Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We have made significant progress in the last year to return the business to profitability and delivered results that allow us to increase investment in our retail businesses; we expect profits to grow further this year.
“This shows our plan is working, while we know there’s much more to do. Our improved performance has been supported by our customers’ love for both brands, with more people choosing to shop with us than ever before, and our Partners’ commitment to delivering excellent customer service.
“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.”
Nish Kankiwala, CEO of the John Lewis Partnership, 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.”
