John Lewis’ new chair Dame Sharon White has hinted that she may deviate from the transformation roadmap laid out by her predecessor Sir Charlie Mayfield.
White, who took up her new role at John Lewis and her first in retail earlier this month, has said she may make changes to the restructuring plan unveiled by former chair Mayfield to merge John Lewis and Waitrose in a bid to stem declining sales and profits.
When Mayfield’s transformation plan was first revealed last October, the partnership said that White concurred with the strategy.
But, in an interview with the retailer’s in-house magazine the Gazette, she has since implied this may not be the case.
When asked if she was confident that the group’s ‘future partnership’ structure was the right one for the business, White said “there will be some adjustments”, although she added that the business is “stronger when we work more collaboratively” due to the 40% overlap of its customer base.
“At the same time, our brands speak to different customers and the rhythm of running a department store is not the same as that of a food store,” she added.
“So, before we close the top structure, I want to make sure we get the best of both worlds, integrate the areas where we get more efficiency and serve customers better, without losing the distinctiveness of our brands.”
Mayfield’s plan to merge John Lewis and Waitrose has been followed by a period of churn at the top of John Lewis, with a third of senior managers departing alongside long-standing executives Rob Collins and Paula Nickolds, former bosses of Waitrose and John Lewis respectively.
White is set to meet the board this week to decide if the partnership will give staff a bonus this year amid warnings that it could be scrapped for the first time in decades.
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