John Lewis gives update on future of Sheffield shop as stores, jobs and bonuses face being cut

The company’s chairman, Dame Sharon White, told workers in a memo this week that not all John Lewis outlets would reopen following the relaxation of lockdown measures, there would likely be ‘implications for some partners’ jobs’ and that it was ‘hard to see the circumstances’ where the employee-owned firm could pay its staff bonus next year.

Since June, 22 stores have returned with social distancing in place, including the other Yorkshire sites in Leeds and York.

A further 10 will reopen later this month, but Sheffield is still not on the list – raising the prospect of the historic shop remaining shuttered for good. Until 2002 the Barker’s Pool store traded as Cole Brothers, which originally started on Fargate in 1847.

A spokeswoman for John Lewis told The Star: “The reality is that we have too much store space for the way people want to shop now and we have shared this with our partners. As difficult as it is, it is highly unlikely we will reopen all our John Lewis stores. However, no decision has been made and any details would be shared with partners first by the middle of July.”

Dame Sharon, who launched a strategic review on becoming chairman earlier this year, said in her memo: “We entered the crisis with weakening profits, and we have taken a number of actions to preserve cash. Support from the Government has been a big help. Trade too has not been as bad as our worst-case scenario thanks to a lot of hard work from our partners. However as our competitors reopen we expect trading to be tougher in the second half of the year.”

The partnership – which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain – is closing one of its London offices and wants to grow its online division. More combined Waitrose and John Lewis shops are on the cards, as well as ‘higher investment’ in stores where the firm can ‘improve value to customers’.

Dame Sharon added: “We are in active discussions with landlords about ending some leases and renegotiating others to make the terms more flexible.”

It is understood the retailer owns the land on which the Sheffield shop and car park – built in 1963 for Cole Brothers – stands in Barker’s Pool.

John Lewis would have moved to a brand new department store at Wellington Street, on the site of Sheffield's old central fire station, under the Sevenstone scheme that stalled in the last recession. But the company decided in 2012 that it was staying put and Sevenstone’s successor, Heart of the City II, is being built around its premises.

Dame Sharon said: “The pandemic has led to profound shifts in the way we all live and shop, even our sense of self. While this coming period of transformation will sadly mean the end of some stores, we have to change for the future of the partnership. We have to resize the business.”

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