John Lewis warns staff on profits amid missed sales targets
It comes after chief customer officer Charlotte Lock stepped down from her role after three years earlier this month
The John Lewis Partnership has fallen short of its profit targets in Q4 after both Waitrose and John Lewis “missed their sales targets” over Christmas, according to reports from The Telegraph.
The partnership cited “lower consumer confidence and weaker than expected market confidence” for the softer sales in the month to 21 December.
According to an internal document seen by The Telegraph, the partnership claimed that it had outperformed its competitors and that staff should be “proud of our performance”.
It was banking on a positive golden quarter following the return of its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price promise in September and improved food offer in Waitrose.
As a result, the company is now unlikely to reach its target of £131m in profit for the full year.
JLP was back in profit for the first time in three years posting a pre-tax profit of £42m, for the year ended 27 January 2024, up from a £234m loss the year before.
A John Lewis spokesman said: “As we said in September, we remain on track to deliver full-year pre-exceptional profits significantly above the £42m we reported in 2023-2024 and we will update on our performance at our results in March.”
It comes after chief customer officer Charlotte Lock stepped down from her role after three years earlier this month. She stated that she was stepping down in order to pursue a “personal passion project”.
At JLP she oversaw customer strategy, propositions, brand, marketing, channels, CX, digital product, store development and VM, martech and loyalty.
