John Lewis suffers first half loss of £99m and warns of risk to staff bonuses
The Guardian says The John Lewis Partnership slumped to a first half loss of £99m driven by soaring inflation, as the department store group warned a “uniquely uncertain” outlook in the run-up to Christmas would put the staff annual bonus at risk this year.
The group, which is staff-owned and includes the Waitrose supermarket chain, made a profit of £69m in the same period to 30 July last year.
“No one could have predicted the scale of the cost of living crisis that has materialised, with energy prices and inflation rising ahead of anyone’s expectations,” said Sharon White, chair of John Lewis Partnership. “As a business, we have faced unprecedented cost inflation across grocery and general merchandise.”