Yahoo Finance John Lewis has ‘let go of its soul’, claims Mary Portas in LinkedIn row
John Lewis has “let go of its soul”, the former Downing Street adviser Mary Portas has said in a letter to boss Dame Sharon White.
In a scathing open letter to the John Lewis chairman and incoming chief executive Nish Kankiwala posted on LinkedIn, Ms Portas said she was speaking up “on behalf of the British nation”.
It comes after it emerged that John Lewis could water down its decades-old staff ownership model by selling a stake to an outside investor.
Dame Sharon is seeking to raise between £1bn and £2bn of new investment but John Lewis's partnership model means it is unable to raise equity and has instead been forced to sell bonds. It already has £1.7bn of debt on its books.
Ms Portas said: “Your task isn’t to turn around just another mediocre retailer under threat of going under. You’re fighting to save part of our collective cultural identity.
“But what’s worrying me is that you might think your fight is purely financial. It’s not.
“The battle in hand is far more nuanced. It’s about what makes up the soul of your brand. The intangibles, the shared beliefs, the beautiful things that can’t be captured in financial projections but earn a little space in people’s hearts.
“Somehow, in recent years, you’ve let go of the soul. We’ve all felt the subtle, but powerful, erasure of what John Lewis is, a severing of what’s always set your business apart.”
The LinkedIn post prompted a flurry of responses from retail bosses including the chief executive of Fortnum & Mason, Tom Athron, who wrote: “Lessons for us all in here.”
Christian Haas, managing director of YO! Sushi in the UK and Ireland, added: “A superb letter Mary. Thank you for speaking on behalf of the nation and I dearly hope your words do not go unheeded.”
Dame Sharon has been battling to revive John Lewis’s fortunes as the business grapples with falling sales and large losses. Earlier this month, the mutual, which also owns Waitrose, told staff that they would not receive a bonus after posting a worse-than-expected £230m annual loss.
She has hired Mr Kankiwala, a turnaround expert and the former chairman of Hovis, as John Lewis’s first chief executive. It followed the surprise departure of Pippa Wicks, who was hired in 2020 as the managing director of the company’s department stores.
Responding on social media, Dame Sharon said: “It’s the biggest privilege of my life to be custodian of the partnership. I am here to ensure that it not only survives, but thrives for generations. I became chairman because we are a co-owned business. It is why Nish, who has been in the partnership for two years, takes up the role of chief executive on Monday.
“I love our brands. Their strength isn’t an accident of our being a partnership. It is because we are a partnership. Our partners who own the business are our greatest asset and our ownership of the partnership will remain.
“We’ve always been open to new partnerships with investors or like-minded companies to share in our growth. I will not rest until the partnership is restored to full health.”
Ms Portas, who led an independent review into the future of the high street for the coalition government, criticised Dame Sharon for ditching popular incentives at Waitrose including its free newspaper and coffee offers, the latter of which has been restored.
She said: “Every time I open a newspaper it’s a new headline on the financing, the systems, the operations, the ads.
“Every time I pop in, it’s another little miss. The newspaper? Gone.The coffee? Gone. Now returned.
“Your pledge ‘Never knowingly undersold’? Gone too. Really? At a time when good decent value and integrity could not be important? Your new strapline ‘for all life’s moments’ isn’t a pledge. I’m not quite sure what it is.”
She continued: “What we want in this crooked, flighty, commoditised world of ours is unfailing quality, honest value, genuinely helpful service.
“What we want is to come to you when we’re expecting our first baby and panicking about buying a cot. What we want is to come to you when we’ve finally made it onto the property ladder and want curtains and a sofa bed that’ll last.
