Britain's John Lewis set to shut more stores on COVID-19 hit

(Reuters) - John Lewis Partnership warned that some of its department stores would close down permanently after record costs and shop closures pushed the business to an annual pre-tax loss on Thursday.

The group, which operates 42 John Lewis shops, permanently closed eight stores last July impacting 1,300 jobs, as it grappled with the fallout from the pandemic.

"Hard as it is, there is no getting away from the fact that some areas can no longer profitably sustain a John Lewis store," the company said, adding that it was in talks with landlords, with final decisions expected by the end of March.

Chairman Sharon White described the situation as "the greatest scale of change in the Partnership's 156-year history."

John Lewis shops are now held on its balance sheet at almost half the value they were before write downs this year and last, it added.

The employee-owned group, which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain, said the outlook is uniquely uncertain as the country charts its exit from the latest lockdown, adding that "no one has a crystal ball to predict the strength and pace of the recovery - or the future course of the virus".

It reported a pretax loss of 517 million pounds ($721 million) for the year ended Jan. 30, compared with a profit of 146 million pounds, hurt by exceptional costs of 648 million pounds from the write down in the value of John Lewis shops along with restructuring and redundancy costs.

However, it posted a profit, excluding those items, of 131 million pounds, compared with 61 million pounds last year.

The company plans to invest 800 million pounds this year for its turnaround and expects liquidity, debt ratio and profit before exceptionals to worsen in 2021 and 2022 and then improve in later years.

It is also targeting a 300 million pound a year cost reduction by 2022-23 and intends to accept business rates relief from April to June. ($1 = 0.7172 pounds)

(Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and James Davey in London; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Keith Weir)