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The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has blamed budget tax hikes for a deeper half-year loss.

The UK’s largest employee-owned business, which owns John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, reported a headline loss before tax and exceptional items of £34m for the six months to 26 July.

That compared to a £5m loss in the same period last year. The higher figure was reached despite a 4% rise in group sales to £6.2bn.

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“This result was significantly impacted by costs not present in the equivalent prior period”, the partnership explained, “including £29m of costs for the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging levy (where we took the full annual cost in our first half results), alongside higher National Insurance Contributions (NICs)”.

JLP said the loss figure also reflected additional investment in its systems and growth-led teams.

On a bottom line basis, the losses stood at £88m – up from £30m – as some exceptional costs associated with the group’s turnaround and some non-cash impairments were included.

JLP insisted it was on track to grow profitability in the core second half of its financial year, despite a “challenging” macroeconomic environment, as both operations were outperforming in their respective markets.

The company cited benefits from its investment, which hit £191m over the six months, have been prioritised over partner bonuses during several years of recovery for the group that have seen underperforming department stores closed and jobs lost.

Jason Tarry, the former Tesco executive who has chaired the partnership for a year, said the outlook was positive despite consumer confidence remaining subdued.

“Our clear focus on accelerating investment in our customers and our brands is working: more customers are shopping with us, driving sales, and helping Waitrose and John Lewis outperform their markets”, he said.

“We achieved our highest recorded levels of positive customer satisfaction, a testament to the great service of our partners.

“The investments we are making, combined with our plans for peak trading, provide a strong foundation for the remainder of the year.

“While we are reporting a loss in the first half, we’re well positioned to deliver full-year profit growth, which we’ll continue to invest in our customers and partners.”

Market analysts have cautioned that the sales figures are likely to have been flattered by the disruption to trading at rival M&S, which suffered a cyber attack in April.

But Robyn Duffy, consumer markets senior analyst at RSM UK, said of the sales uplift: “Waitrose’s performance has been a key driver, benefiting from a renewed focus on its food proposition, including a greater emphasis on lower prices and a more effective adoption of technology to improve the customer experience.

“Meanwhile, the John Lewis retail arm is successfully drawing in customers through a combination of revitalised physical stores, a focus on meaningful brand partnerships, and the reintroduction of its Never Knowingly Undersold price matching strategy.”

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says it now believes that “some data has been affected” in the cyber attack on the company last week.

The British car maker shut down operations when it spotted the attack last Tuesday, and its staff have been told to stay at home since.

Sky News understands it will now be at least Monday next week before production staff can return to their jobs.

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In an update on Wednesday, a spokesperson said: “Since we became aware of the cyber incident, we have been working around the clock, alongside third-party cybersecurity specialists, to restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner.

“As a result of our ongoing investigation, we now believe that some data has been affected and we are informing the relevant regulators. Our forensic investigation continues at pace and we will contact anyone as appropriate if we find that their data has been impacted.”

It was not yet clear exactly what data had been accessed.

“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this incident is causing and we will continue to update as the investigation progresses,” the person concluded.

The incident is hurting not only output at JLR but wider internal systems and harming its supply chain.

JLR says partner retail operations, including service and sales, are not affected.

It is aiming to brief MPs whose constituencies contain production sites at a meeting on Friday.

Hacking group Scattered Spider claimed responsibility for the attack soon after it was made public.

Read more:
Government reacts to cyber attack on JLR

It was the ransomware group blamed for disruption to British retailers earlier this year.

M&S has put a £300m cost on the hit to its business but expects the final figure to fall substantially thanks to insurance policy payouts.

Four people have been arrested and bailed in connection with the April attacks.