The John Lewis Partnership began when John Spedan Lewis decided in the 1920s to establish the two-store group as an employee partnership. Later, when he died, ownership of the group passed on to a trust controlled by representatives of the workforce. Spedan Lewis’s own father had been horrified by this idea, but the group flourished under this unusual structure. The first ten Waitrose grocery shops joined the partnership in 1937 and today the whole partnership comprises 400 stores and sales of over £10 billion a year. Spedan Lewis wanted social justice, but also spawned a successful business model.
The partnership benefits from strengths in market positioning and in its employee structure. Its financials are underpinned by the diversification provided by being the only UK retailer based on a grocery arm (Waitrose) plus a department store chain (John Lewis). In the 2009 recession, sales at many John Lewis stores fell by more than 10%, but Waitrose sales remained stable. Once Waitrose introduced its Waitrose Essentials range of better-value products, sales moved ahead.
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