I’m not sure how Sharon White’s relatively brief tenure at John Lewis will be seen in the future. She did get shot of the ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ policy (which was clunky, labour-intensive and expensive to administer) and also brought in own brands like Anyday, which proved to be a commercial success. Unfortunately, she took the reins of JLP at a very difficult time, especially for retail (and even more so for someone with limited retail experience). I (and many others) had great hopes that she would somehow turn the Partnership around but quickly realised that its core business, ie retail, which should have been her primary focus - streamlining distribution and customer service and investing in making JL and Waitrose stores profitable was taking second place to her vision of diversifying into property and other areas of business (great ideas) but which probably should have been considered once the core business was back in a strong position. Growing and improving JLP should have been top of the agenda, instead of selling assets to fund projects with external business partners that may or may not bear fruit (the Ealing housing project, for example, has been widely criticised and requires further funding) and, more importantly, take away one of JLPs main strengths - its ability to make well considered, fully-costed decisions free from external investor and shareholder pressures.
Marks and Spencer has successfully refocused its business - their food is first class and well priced as is their fashion which has been generally well received and widely featured across various media channels. I shopped in my local M&S a few times recently - staffing levels were good, morale appeared to he high, staff were extremely friendly, helpful and knowledgeable and checkout was very quick and efficient.
Hopefully the new JLP Chairman/woman will address a lot of these issues and make JL and Waitrose, once again, the most valued and trusted brands on the high street.
Operations Manager at TJ Maxx
3wWill you be celebrating Independence Day with the same energy?