John Lewis boss seeks ‘stability’ from next government to help drive growth
John Lewis’s chief executive has called on whoever wins the general election to deliver a stable environment for economic growth that allows consumers to spend with confidence.
Speaking as the John Lewis Partnership reported its first full-year profit since before the pandemic, Nish Kankiwala told Sky News the political and economic turbulence of recent years had damaged consumer confidence.
“There’s no doubt that the last few years have been tough for families, with inflation, paying the electricity bill, mortgage rates have gone up. Now, we have enjoyed a growth in our customers despite that environment.
“My ask from a broader perspective is that we have stability. That makes such a big difference to customers buying big ticket items, or even the day-to-day. That would be my request.
Money latest: Britons to see big bill rises in April
“I think encouraging growth is important for our economy, along with stability so customers can make those decisions in an environment where they trust the next year is going to be similar to this year, and I don’t think we have had that in years just recently past.”
The comments, from the boss of former prime minister Theresa May’s favourite shop, reflect a broadly held sentiment in business that the election offers a chance to reset the economy after the volatility and uncertainty of recent years, exemplified by the chaos of the Liz Truss mini budget.
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Budget 2024: A new age of austerity?
Mr Kankiwala said the return to profit at the group, which comprises John Lewis stores and Waitrose supermarkets, was driven by an additional one million customers across the two brands, and higher margins on sales.
Despite recording a £42m pre-tax profit, there will be no bonus for the 76,000 staff, known as partners, of Britain’s largest employee-owned company, the third year in four that no bonus has been paid.
Mr Kankiwala said partners would receive the company’s largest ever pay rise, with up to two-thirds seeing an uplift of more than 10%, and that pay, and investing in the business, was a shared priority.
“In the year that I have been CEO it has been very clear to me that they want a long-term future for the partnership, that they want us to invest in the business, that we have the shops that look right, have the technology that we need and focus on pay,” he said.
The partnership includes Waitrose supermarkets as well as the John Lewis department stores. Pic: JLP
Mr Kankiwala would not rule out redundancies but insisted there was no formal target for headcount reductions following reports John Lewis is considering shedding up to 11,000 staff in the coming years.
“We’ve got a very clear plan for growth and it is working this year. New customers are coming through our shops, we’re growing margins and growing profit and that is what’s delivering.
“So there are no numbers, no parameters on any of those things [redundancies]. Fundamentally it is about delivering growth. We have got a plan that delivers growth, that delivers growth for partners and business and we will continue to review that.”
Mr Kankiwala has been in post for a year and before his second is out the current chair, Dame Sharon White, will have left having decided to depart after just a single five-year term in the job.
Dame Sharon’s plans for John Lewis included diversifying the brand, with projects including build-to-let homes and a target of 40% of profit coming from non-retail sources.
Mr Kankiwala confirmed that target has now been abandoned in favour of an “unashamed focus” on retail.
“The environment over the last few years has changed dramatically,” he said. “When it was set in 2020 interest rates were much lower, we didn’t have the high inflation, and fundamentally we don’t want to have a target for that because we are focusing on retail.”
He also insisted Waitrose and John Lewis would remain part of the same group. “We’re a partnership, two great brands. And they stay together.”
A millionaires’ playground, Poole in Dorset boasts some of the most expensive properties in the UK, and has been called Britain’s Palm Beach.
Away from the yachts and the mansions of Sandbanks, however, Poole is also a beer drinkers’ paradise, with 58 pubs in the parliamentary constituency alone.
But now many of Dorset’s pub landlords have joined a bitter backlash against rises in business rates of up to £30,000 in Rachel Reeves’s November budget.
Across the UK, it is claimed up to 1,000 publicans have even banned Labour MPs from their pubs, after the chancellor axed a 40% rates discount, introduced during COVID, from next April.
The row over the rises, brewing since the budget, came to a head in a clash between Kemi Badenoch and Sir Keir Starmer in the final Prime Minister’s Questions of 2025.
“He gave his word that he would help pubs,” said the Tory leader.
“Yet they face a 15% rise in business rates because of his budget. Will he be honest and admit that his taxes are forcing pubs to close?”
The PM replied that the temporary relief introduced during COVID – a scheme the Conservatives put in place and Labour supported, he said – had come to an end.
“But it was always a temporary scheme coming to an end,” he said.
“We have now put in place a £4bn transitional relief.”
Mark and Michael Ambrose, father and son co-landlords of The Barking Cat, said the increases are a ‘pub destroyer’
But in the Barking Cat Ale House in Poole, facing an increase in business rates of nearly £9,000 a year, the father and son co-landlords fear the rises could mean last orders for many pubs.
“We’re sort of in the average area at 157%, but we’ve got a lot of local pubs that are increasing by 600%, and another one by 800%,” Ambrose senior, Mark, told Sky News.
“It’s a pub destroyer. Pubs can’t survive these kinds of increases. It’s not viable. Most pubs are just about scraping by anyway. If you add these massive increases your profit margins are wiped out.
“We struggle as it is. You can’t have that kind of increase and expect businesses to succeed.
“Fortunately, the customers understand. But they still don’t want to have to spend an extra 30 or 50 pence a pint.”
Son Michael added: “It’s all back to front. It’s really these bigger pub companies and supermarkets that need to be facing increased taxes. We can’t handle them. They can.”
Michelle Smith, landlady of the Poole Arms, the oldest pub on the town’s quay, dating back to 1635, said: “Our rates per value is due to go up £9,000 in April, so it’s quite a deal.”
Michelle Smith, landlady of The Poole Arms, said all her prices are going up
“And we had a rates increase just gone as well,” she added. “So our rates had already increased over £1,000 a month last April. So another hit is quite considerable really.
“Prices definitely have to go up with all the different price increases that we’ve got throughout: business rates, wage increases, the beer goes up from the breweries. Everything is going up.”
Backing the publicans, Neil Duncan-Jordan, who became Poole’s first ever Labour MP last year, has written to the chancellor demanding a rethink. He said he is prepared to vote against the tax rise in the Commons.
“They’ve got to listen,” he told Sky News.
“They’ve got to listen to the high street, to publicans, people who run social clubs and listen to problems that they’re facing and the impact that these changes have made.”
Mr Duncan-Jordan said he was prepared to support an amendment to the Finance Bill, which turns the budget into law and had its second reading in the Commons last week.
Despite being suspended for four months for rebelling against welfare cuts earlier this year, he said: “I was discussing this with some MPs just this morning and I’ll be happy to support those. Sometimes you just have to say what you think is right.”
As chancellor, Ms Reeves has regularly raised a glass to pubs and promised to protect them from rising costs.
But Sir Keir has faced the wrath of a publican before, when he was thrown out of a pub in Bath during COVID by an anti-lockdown landlord.
This time, without a U-turn by the chancellor on the business rates increases, pub landlords fear the government has them over a barrel.
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