John Lewis is planning to cut up to 11,000 jobs as part of its turnaround.
The retail giant is looking to slash more than 10% of its 76,000 workforce over the next five years as it plans to reduce its cost base by £900m.
Sources expect the cuts to impact the company’s central London head office and John Lewis staff most heavily.
The Guardian reported that number of roles in the business is expected to gradually reduce over several years via redundancies and not replacing staff who leave.
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The news emerges after partners were recently told that redundancy pay would be halved.
Staff that lose their jobs will qualify for just one week of pay per year of service, down from the previous two weeks.
Meanwhile, The Times reported that the John Lewis Partnership has raised about £260m to fund its turnaround by taking on new bank debt and by selling and leasing back 11 Waitrose stores.
Earlier this month, John Lewis hired one of its former directors, ex-Jigsaw boss Peter Ruis, to run its department store business.
Ruis is set to lead the business “through the next phase of its transformation”, the company said.
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3 Comments. Leave new
John Lewis partnership how long will it last as a partnership when I was with him I was a good company to work with but I don’t think they are now
Anyone who saw the news about them cutting redundancy pay kenw this was going to happen. I suspect it will happen over a much shorter time frame. Could JL going the way of Woolworths?
JLP are losing the thing that makes it JLP. Same with Sainsbury’s, all the things that made it Sainsbury’s have gone or will be going. No need to shop at Sainsbury’s, Lidl will do. Sad times.