LONDON (Reuters) – British retailer the John Lewis Partnership plans to permanently close eight more John Lewis stores and they will not reopen when the current COVID-19 lockdown ends, impacting 1,464 jobs, it said on Tuesday.
The country’s biggest employee-owned group had warned earlier this month that more of its stores would close after the “economic earthquake” of the pandemic sent it to a 517 million pound ($709 million) annual loss.
The partnership is re-shaping its business in response to how customers increasingly want to shop in-store and online. It expects 60% to 70% of John Lewis sales to be made online in the future.
“We can unfortunately no longer profitably sustain a large John Lewis store in some locations where we do not have enough customers, which is resulting in the proposed closures,” it said.
It said the eight shops set for closure – four department stores in Aberdeen, Peterborough, Sheffield and York and four ‘At Home’ shops in Ashford, Basingstoke, Chester and Tunbridge Wells – were “financially challenged” prior to the pandemic.
The group said it will enter into consultation with the affected workers, or partners as it calls them.
It closed eight stores last July, impacting 1,300 jobs.
The partnership said its remaining 34 John Lewis shops will reopen from April 12 subject to government guidance – with the exception of Glasgow, which will reopen from April 26, and Edinburgh, which will reopen on May 14.
The partnership also owns upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose.
It plans to improve a next day Click & Collect service for John Lewis products in Waitrose stores and offer more collection points through third parties.
It is also trialling John Lewis shopping areas in Waitrose stores and by the autumn, Waitrose general merchandise products will be sourced by John Lewis.
The group also plans to test new formats of smaller, local neighbourhood John Lewis shops.
($1 = 0.7293 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)
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