John Lewis Chair Could Face Secret Ballot In A Very British Coup

It was only a few years ago that John Lewis Partnership (JLP) was being held up as a paragon of British retailing excellence.

Having successfully morphed from a much loved if somewhat staid U.K. department store brand to become an omnichannel powerhouse, the retail group that also owns upscale grocer Waitrose could do little wrong across categories from fashion to homewares, food to consumer electronics.

Once synonymous with its roster of emotional Christmas holiday season ads, renowned customer service and (now abandoned) promise to “never knowingly be undersold”, how John Lewis chair Dame Sharon White would love to relive those heady times now.

Instead, she could face a secret vote of confidence this week as growing concerns around the company’s performance, in-store experience and mooted changes to its unique business model come under scrutiny.

According to reports, several members of the partnership’s elected council of more than 60 JLP ‘partners’, have requested that the twice-yearly vote of confidence in White’s leadership be held in secret this time round.

This will go ahead if a majority of John Lewis councillors agree to the motion this week and The Sunday Times reported that, in the recent past, secret ballots have resulted in significant rebellions.

The vote will follow a meeting at the partnership-owned The Odney Club, in which White and her senior exec team face a grilling by the council over the group’s performance after losses increased to $294.6 million at the latest results.

JLP Moots Ownership Change

In response to this alarming decline, JLP appointed its first group chief executive, Nish Kankiwala, and abandoned the staff bonus for the second time in three years

But more than that, a potential plan to reverse its fortunes and raise funds by selling a minority stake in the partnership-owned business caused a storm of protest inside and outside the company, which many see as a bellwether of the U.K. retail industry.

Currently, the company is owned by its staff – or ‘partners’ – who also famously enjoy a substantial bonus annually.

Former John Lewis boss Andy Street – now Mayor of the West Midlands – said that abandoning the partnership would be a “tragedy”, while U.K. retail guru Mary Portas wrote an open letter proposing alternative ways forward for the retailer and added that it was treading on “precarious grounds”.

A partnership spokeswoman told The Sunday Times that one of the reasons behind councillors requesting a secret ballot was because they did not want to appear in the media.

However, recent letters submitted by staff to JLP’s in-house publication The Gazette have shown concerns about White’s leadership.

While the confidence vote is not binding, a significant rebellion would turn up the pressure on White, who appeared via video link at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona recently to insist that she remained “positive and constructive about the industry”.

She maintained that John Lewis staff “have been incredibly supportive” regarding the recent changes in the organization.

White Hits Back Over Values

White insisted that being purpose-led remains a key factor as she highlighted her public sector background.

“Values really matter to us,” she said. “We serve 20 million households. We try to run the business in a fundamentally caring way. We try to show that common sense capitalism can still thrive.”

Of the business, White said that 60% of the retailer’s customers shop online with JLP and added: “Our customers have responded very positively as we’ve worked in flexible ways. While we see people going back to shopping like in the pre-Covid times, we don’t think it will go back completely.”

John Lewis has also pushed ahead with plans for the development of private rental apartments above its Waitrose stores and other real estate as a new revenue stream and has struck a deal with investment giant Abrdn to build 1,000 new homes.

But many believe that the retailer would do better sticking to, well, retail, and getting the fundamentals right again.

Whether White is given the chance to make that decision could yet come down to this week’s moves by JLP’s increasingly disillusioned partners.