John Lewis Partnership
Encyclopedia
The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned
UK partnership which operates John Lewis
department store
s, Waitrose
supermarket
s and a number of other services. The company is owned by a trust
on behalf of all its employees — known as partners - who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. The group is the third largest UK private company in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2010. Additionally, John Lewis also has the distinction of being UK's best high-street website after beating M&S in October 2010. The chain's image is upmarket, and it appeals strongly to middle and upper class shoppers. Recently, however, John Lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the 'Value' range to John Lewis and the 'Essential' range to Waitrose, and with the expansion of the business.
The partnership also supplies the Ocado
web supermarket with Waitrose own-brand foods and John Lewis own-brand non-food items.
set up a draper's shop
in Oxford Street
, London
, which developed into a department store. In 1905 he bought the Peter Jones
store in Sloane Square
. In 1920 his son, John Spedan Lewis
, expanded earlier power-sharing policies by sharing the profits the business made among the employees. The democratic nature and profit-sharing basis of the business were developed into a formal partnership
structure and Spedan Lewis bequeathed the company to his employees. As of 2011, there are 76,500 partners – the majority full-time – working for the John Lewis Partnership.
The principle and slogan Never knowingly undersold was adopted in 1925. It applied to the company's Peter Jones store. It echoes an advertisement of 1846 by John Lewis subsidiary Bainbridge of Newcastle upon Tyne
that stated that 'Bainbridge and Muschamp are resolved that they will not be undersold by any House in the Kingdom'. It stated that if a customer could buy the same item cheaper elsewhere they would refund the difference.
Today, the company still honours this pledge, and many of their competitors also offer such a pledge. The principle has been more refined, most notably to exclude retailers who only trade through online shop
ping. The pledge has recently been revised to include extended insurance and delivery charges when comparing undersale values. However, they were the only large retailer that would match the price with any UK shop, not restricting it to a local area, until DSG International plc adopted the same policy in July 2007. The policy is also to monitor local competitors and reduce the shelf edge price if they are being 'undersold'.
The present shop on Oxford Street was completed in 1960, the original buildings having been bombed during the war and gradually rebuilt. The sculpture Winged Figure by Barbara Hepworth
was added in 1962.
On 27 April 1933 John Lewis Partnership bought Jessop & Son of Nottingham
. This store was the first John Lewis outside London. The store kept the name 'Jessops' until 2002, when after a refurbishment and expansion the store was renamed as simply John Lewis. The partnership has also purchased a number of other regional department stores, as well as developing stores in new locations. As of 2005 it has plans to open a new department store every year for the next 10 years, which is probably the most ambitious expansion programme in its history.
In line with other British department store chains, it is nearing the completion of a process of renaming any stores not branded John Lewis (Tyrrell & Green, Heelas
, etc.) with the nationally recognisable name. Peter Jones in London will remain the only exception to this policy when the premises of Knight & Lee
are replaced by a new department store in Portsmouth
, and following the recent renaming of the Cambridge
store (formerly Robert Sayle
).
The Partnership Council also elects five of the directors on the partnership board (which is responsible for the commercial activities), while the chairman appoints another five. The two remaining board members are the chairman and the deputy chairman. These routes ensure that every non-management partner has an open channel for expressing his/her views to management and the chairman.
As well as this, the John Lewis Partnership publishes a weekly in-house magazine, called The Gazette. It is the oldest in-house magazine currently still being published in the UK. Each John Lewis branch also has its own weekly magazine, called The Chronicle.
The John Lewis Partnership has a very extensive programme of social activities for its partners, including two large country estates with parklands, playing fields and tennis courts; a golf club; a sailing club with five cruising yachts and two country hotels offering holiday accommodation for the partners. Partners are also enrolled in a very favourable pension scheme, receive a death in service insurance, and are given very generous holidays. In addition to this, upon completing 25 years of service for the company, partners are given a paid 6 month break.
Finally, every partner receives an Annual Bonus, which is a share of the profit. It is calculated as a percentage of the salary, with the same percentage for everyone, from top management down to the shop floor and the storage rooms. The bonus is dependent on the profitability of the partnership each year, varying between 9% and 20% of the partners' annual salaries since 2000.The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2007 was the top end 20%, this is before the recession started. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2008 was 15% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2007/2008 financial year. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2009 was 13% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2008/2009 financial year. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2010 was 15% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2009/2010 financial year.
In 1999, in response to a fall in profits, there were calls from some Partners for the business to be demutualised and floated on the stock market. If this had gone through, each Partner would have been guaranteed a windfall of up to £100,000 each, in order to compensate them for their share of the business. In the end, no one on the Partnership Council agreed with the idea and only one member spoke in favour of a referendum on the issue.
In the year 2007-2008, the managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street, who has worked since leaving university in 1985, was paid £500,000, plus the 20% bonus of £100,000.
The John Lewis Partnership's financial year runs from February to January the next year. The percentage figure in the bonus column shows the bonus' value in relation to a partner's salary. 8.33% would mean one additional month's salary and 16.66% would mean two months' salary, showing that the staff has received more than one month's additional salary as bonus each year since 2000. This is an attractive facet of the company, which has a reputation for looking after its staff (including paid secondments whilst partners conduct charity work; subsidised canteens and staff excursions amongst other benefits).
In the 1983/4 year they broke the £100,000,000 barrier for the second time.
Financial section of John Lewis' website
As of 2011 the John Lewis division operates 28 full-line department stores, 4 John Lewis at Home Stores and a webstore
. The stores are in a mixture of city centre and regional shopping centre locations. They are generally the largest or second largest department store in their local market. The flagship Oxford Street store in London remains the largest John Lewis outlet in the UK.
As well as the John Lewis department stores the partnership operates five Waitrose Food & Home stores combining the group's Waitrose supermarkets with some of the John Lewis division's non-food ranges.
Newer John Lewis at home stores are opening to cater for areas which have no local John Lewis department near them. They are around a third of a size of a normal department store. The first store opened in Poole in October 2009. This year Croydon will open at the end of August, along with Tunbridge Wells and Swindon later in the year. This type of store contains both Home and Electrical departments with services such as a cafe and 'Click and Collect' also available.
Peter Jones is one of the largest and best known department stores in central London, England. It is a store of the John Lewis Partnership and located on Sloane Square, at the junction of King's Road and Sloane Street, in the fashionable Chelsea district, close to the elite districts of Belgravia and Knightsbridge. Peter Jones was founded as an independent store but was taken over in the 1920s to form part of the John Lewis Partnership.
The John Lewis Partnership also owns Waitrose, an upmarket supermarket chain which has 259 branches (2011) and 35,573 (summer 2006) partners. Waitrose trades mainly in London and the South of England
, and was originally formed by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The company was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership in 1937. The acquisition of 19 Safeway branches in 2004 greatly increased the size of the company and saw branches open in the north of England for the first time. A further six stores were purchased from Morrisons in Autumn 2005 and again helped the march into previously unexplored territories. Then, in March 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of five stores from Somerfield, with the first two stores in Scotland
, both of which are in the capital, Edinburgh
. In July 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of six more stores and a distribution centre from Morrisons. In 2007 the first purpose built Waitrose supermarket in the north of England opened at Cheadle Hulme
, Greater Manchester
. In January 2009, Waitrose announced the purchase of an additional 13 stores from Somerfield. Waitrose also does online shopping and was the first to offer a free delivery service. This is in addition to Ocado.
Ocado is an online supermarket which sells Waitrose own brand products. It delivers in vans which have pictures of fruit and vegetables. The John Lewis Partnership pension fund previously owned 29% of Ocado, but fully divested itself of its share ownership in February 2011.
, leisure
and financial services
. Initially, the company offered home
, travel
, wedding
and events insurance
as well as a travel and ticket
s service. It subsequently expanded to offer other services including car
and pet insurance
, insurance for second homes and broadband
Internet
access.
In late 2010 Greenbee was absorbed into the John Lewis brand and insurance services are now offered under the John Lewis Insurance brand. Broadband and telephone services will continue to be provided by John Lewis.
) and the Switch (now Maestro
) and Delta (now Visa Debit
) debit cards.
On 28 March 2004, the John Lewis Partnership announced the launch of their own credit card — the Partnership card. This was launched with HFC
which is a division of the banking giant HSBC
. It was launched as a MasterCard
with a choice of four designs (effectively four different colours).
The credit card follows on from, and supersedes, the John Lewis (and Waitrose) account cards which have been around for 40 years. These cards are no longer available, and holders of these are being encouraged to replace them with the Partnership card. They can, however, still be used, and some cards from the mid-1970s are still in use.
The Partnership card is designed as a cashback
credit card, with 6 months interest free credit and a 16.9% APR
. It offers a 1% rebate for purchases at stores (including online stores) that are members of the John Lewis Partnership (such as John Lewis
and Waitrose
). For purchases at other stores it offers a rate of 0.5%. The rebate is awarded as vouchers which can be spent in a store of the John Lewis Partnership. Vouchers are earned by accumulating points, with 1 point awarded for every £1 spent in John Lewis Partnership stores, and every £2 spent elsewhere. 500 points earns a £5 voucher. Earned vouchers are sent to card holders by post and can be spent in a store of the John Lewis Partnership.
, Lancashire
. This company, established as a weaver of jacquard fabrics in 1934, was acquired by the partnership in 1953. Herbert Parkinson currently produce John Lewis own brand fabrics and curtains as well as filled furnishing products such as cushions and pillows. The company operates a wholesale business to outside customers in addition to supplying John Lewis Partnership branches.
Until September 2007, the partnership also owned two further textile production businesses: Carlisle-based printer Stead McAlpin (founded c. 1875, 200 workers) and Haslingden
, Lancashire
-based weaver J H Birtwistle. In spite of capital investment and improvements in efficiency, neither had been profitable for almost 10 years. Apex Textiles, whose managing director is Jim Kidd, was formed to buy the businesses.
The partnership announced its intention to retain both businesses as key suppliers once they were under new ownership and to agree ex gratia
payments to partners employed at the affected sites.
Worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically managed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which...
UK partnership which operates John Lewis
John Lewis (department store)
-Recent developments:In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s, Waitrose
Waitrose
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...
supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s and a number of other services. The company is owned by a trust
Trust law
In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another...
on behalf of all its employees — known as partners - who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. The group is the third largest UK private company in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2010. Additionally, John Lewis also has the distinction of being UK's best high-street website after beating M&S in October 2010. The chain's image is upmarket, and it appeals strongly to middle and upper class shoppers. Recently, however, John Lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the 'Value' range to John Lewis and the 'Essential' range to Waitrose, and with the expansion of the business.
The partnership also supplies the Ocado
Ocado
Ocado is a British Internet retailer specialising in groceries, headquartered in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The limited company was founded in January 2002 by Jonathan Faiman, Jason Gissing and Tim Steiner, former Goldman Sachs merchant bankers....
web supermarket with Waitrose own-brand foods and John Lewis own-brand non-food items.
History
The business was founded in 1864 when John LewisJohn Lewis (department store founder)
John Lewis was the founder of the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street, London.-Background:John Lewis was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England into a Jewish family and became an orphan at the age of seven. He was brought up by an aunt, Miss Ann Speed...
set up a draper's shop
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
in Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, which developed into a department store. In 1905 he bought the Peter Jones
Peter Jones (department store)
Peter Jones is a large, established and exclusive department store in central London. It is owned by John Lewis Partnership and located in Sloane Square, Chelsea.-History :...
store in Sloane Square
Sloane Square
Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the fashionable London districts of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The square is part of the Hans Town area designed in 1771 by Henry...
. In 1920 his son, John Spedan Lewis
John Spedan Lewis
John Spedan Lewis was a British businessman and the founder of the John Lewis Partnership.The elder of two sons of John Lewis, who had opened the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street, London, Spedan Lewis joined the business at 19 and in 1914 assumed control of his father's second shop,...
, expanded earlier power-sharing policies by sharing the profits the business made among the employees. The democratic nature and profit-sharing basis of the business were developed into a formal partnership
Partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
structure and Spedan Lewis bequeathed the company to his employees. As of 2011, there are 76,500 partners – the majority full-time – working for the John Lewis Partnership.
The principle and slogan Never knowingly undersold was adopted in 1925. It applied to the company's Peter Jones store. It echoes an advertisement of 1846 by John Lewis subsidiary Bainbridge of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
that stated that 'Bainbridge and Muschamp are resolved that they will not be undersold by any House in the Kingdom'. It stated that if a customer could buy the same item cheaper elsewhere they would refund the difference.
Today, the company still honours this pledge, and many of their competitors also offer such a pledge. The principle has been more refined, most notably to exclude retailers who only trade through online shop
Online shop
Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. It is a form of electronic commerce...
ping. The pledge has recently been revised to include extended insurance and delivery charges when comparing undersale values. However, they were the only large retailer that would match the price with any UK shop, not restricting it to a local area, until DSG International plc adopted the same policy in July 2007. The policy is also to monitor local competitors and reduce the shelf edge price if they are being 'undersold'.
The present shop on Oxford Street was completed in 1960, the original buildings having been bombed during the war and gradually rebuilt. The sculpture Winged Figure by Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...
was added in 1962.
On 27 April 1933 John Lewis Partnership bought Jessop & Son of Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. This store was the first John Lewis outside London. The store kept the name 'Jessops' until 2002, when after a refurbishment and expansion the store was renamed as simply John Lewis. The partnership has also purchased a number of other regional department stores, as well as developing stores in new locations. As of 2005 it has plans to open a new department store every year for the next 10 years, which is probably the most ambitious expansion programme in its history.
In line with other British department store chains, it is nearing the completion of a process of renaming any stores not branded John Lewis (Tyrrell & Green, Heelas
John Lewis Reading
John Lewis Reading is a major department store in Reading in the English county of Berkshire. Until 2001, the store was known as Heelas, and that name is still in common usage. The store fronts on to Reading's main pedestrianised shopping street, Broad Street, and backs onto Minster Street and...
, etc.) with the nationally recognisable name. Peter Jones in London will remain the only exception to this policy when the premises of Knight & Lee
Knight & Lee
Knight & Lee is a department store in Southsea, Hampshire, England. The store was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership in 1934.The store's origins can be traced back to 1831 with the lace business conducted by William Wink near Portsea Docks...
are replaced by a new department store in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, and following the recent renaming of the Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
store (formerly Robert Sayle
Robert Sayle
Robert Sayle, named after the man who founded it, was a department store in Cambridge, England belonging to the John Lewis Partnership. The original Robert Sayle store opened in 1840 in St Andrew's Street and continued to trade until 2004, when it moved to temporary premises in Burleigh Street...
).
Organisation of the partnership
Every employee is a partner in the John Lewis Partnership, and has a possibility to influence the business through branch forums, which discuss local issues at every store, and the divisional John Lewis and Waitrose Councils. Above all these is the Partnership Council, to which the partners elect at least 80% of the 82 representatives, while the chairman appoints the remaining. The councils have the power to discuss ‘any matter whatsoever’, and are responsible for the non-commercial aspects of the business – the development of the social activities within the partnership and its charitable actions.The Partnership Council also elects five of the directors on the partnership board (which is responsible for the commercial activities), while the chairman appoints another five. The two remaining board members are the chairman and the deputy chairman. These routes ensure that every non-management partner has an open channel for expressing his/her views to management and the chairman.
As well as this, the John Lewis Partnership publishes a weekly in-house magazine, called The Gazette. It is the oldest in-house magazine currently still being published in the UK. Each John Lewis branch also has its own weekly magazine, called The Chronicle.
The John Lewis Partnership has a very extensive programme of social activities for its partners, including two large country estates with parklands, playing fields and tennis courts; a golf club; a sailing club with five cruising yachts and two country hotels offering holiday accommodation for the partners. Partners are also enrolled in a very favourable pension scheme, receive a death in service insurance, and are given very generous holidays. In addition to this, upon completing 25 years of service for the company, partners are given a paid 6 month break.
Finally, every partner receives an Annual Bonus, which is a share of the profit. It is calculated as a percentage of the salary, with the same percentage for everyone, from top management down to the shop floor and the storage rooms. The bonus is dependent on the profitability of the partnership each year, varying between 9% and 20% of the partners' annual salaries since 2000.The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2007 was the top end 20%, this is before the recession started. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2008 was 15% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2007/2008 financial year. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2009 was 13% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2008/2009 financial year. The Annual Partnership Bonus for 2010 was 15% of a partner's gross earnings for the 2009/2010 financial year.
In 1999, in response to a fall in profits, there were calls from some Partners for the business to be demutualised and floated on the stock market. If this had gone through, each Partner would have been guaranteed a windfall of up to £100,000 each, in order to compensate them for their share of the business. In the end, no one on the Partnership Council agreed with the idea and only one member spoke in favour of a referendum on the issue.
In the year 2007-2008, the managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street, who has worked since leaving university in 1985, was paid £500,000, plus the 20% bonus of £100,000.
Financial performance
| Financial year | Turnover | Profit before tax | Net profit | Partner bonuses | Profit retained |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-2011 | £8.2billion | £431million | tbc | £194.5million (18%) | tbc |
| 2009–2010 | £7.4billion | £389million | £306.6million | £151.3million (15%) | £155.3 million |
| 2008–2009 | £7 billion | £279.6 million | £580 million | £125.5 million (13%) | £146.0 million |
| 2007–2008 | £6.8 billion | £379.8 million | £320.4 million | £181.1 million (20%) | £198.7 million |
| 2006–2007 | £6.4 billion | £319.2 million | £263.2 million | £155 million (18%) | £164 million |
| 2005–2006 | £5.7 billion | £251.8 million | £215.1 million | £120.3 million (15%) | £94.8 million |
| 2004–2005 | £5.3 billion | £215.3 million | £175.9 million | £105.8 million (14%) | £70.1 million |
| 2003–2004 | £5.0 billion | £173.5 million | £148.8 million | £87.3 million (12%) | £61.5 million |
| 2002–2003 | £4.7 billion | £145.5 million | £108.6 million | £67.6 million (10%) | £41.0 million |
| 2001–2002 | £4.4 billion | £141.5 million | £103.3 million | £57.3 million (9%) | £46.0 million |
| 2000–2001 | £4.1 billion | £149.5 million | £120.4 million | £58.1 million (10%) | £62.3 million |
| 1999–2000 | £3.7 billion | £194.7 million | £161.0 million | £77.8 million (15%) | £83.2 million |
The John Lewis Partnership's financial year runs from February to January the next year. The percentage figure in the bonus column shows the bonus' value in relation to a partner's salary. 8.33% would mean one additional month's salary and 16.66% would mean two months' salary, showing that the staff has received more than one month's additional salary as bonus each year since 2000. This is an attractive facet of the company, which has a reputation for looking after its staff (including paid secondments whilst partners conduct charity work; subsidised canteens and staff excursions amongst other benefits).
In the 1983/4 year they broke the £100,000,000 barrier for the second time.
Financial section of John Lewis' website
Department stores
As of 2011 the John Lewis division operates 28 full-line department stores, 4 John Lewis at Home Stores and a webstore
Webstore
A webstore is a website that sells products or services and typically has an online shopping cart associated with it. With the popularity of the Internet rapidly increasing, online shopping became advantageous for retail store owners, and many traditional “brick and mortar” stores saw value in...
. The stores are in a mixture of city centre and regional shopping centre locations. They are generally the largest or second largest department store in their local market. The flagship Oxford Street store in London remains the largest John Lewis outlet in the UK.
As well as the John Lewis department stores the partnership operates five Waitrose Food & Home stores combining the group's Waitrose supermarkets with some of the John Lewis division's non-food ranges.
Newer John Lewis at home stores are opening to cater for areas which have no local John Lewis department near them. They are around a third of a size of a normal department store. The first store opened in Poole in October 2009. This year Croydon will open at the end of August, along with Tunbridge Wells and Swindon later in the year. This type of store contains both Home and Electrical departments with services such as a cafe and 'Click and Collect' also available.
Peter Jones is one of the largest and best known department stores in central London, England. It is a store of the John Lewis Partnership and located on Sloane Square, at the junction of King's Road and Sloane Street, in the fashionable Chelsea district, close to the elite districts of Belgravia and Knightsbridge. Peter Jones was founded as an independent store but was taken over in the 1920s to form part of the John Lewis Partnership.
Supermarkets
The John Lewis Partnership also owns Waitrose, an upmarket supermarket chain which has 259 branches (2011) and 35,573 (summer 2006) partners. Waitrose trades mainly in London and the South of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and was originally formed by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The company was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership in 1937. The acquisition of 19 Safeway branches in 2004 greatly increased the size of the company and saw branches open in the north of England for the first time. A further six stores were purchased from Morrisons in Autumn 2005 and again helped the march into previously unexplored territories. Then, in March 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of five stores from Somerfield, with the first two stores in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, both of which are in the capital, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. In July 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of six more stores and a distribution centre from Morrisons. In 2007 the first purpose built Waitrose supermarket in the north of England opened at Cheadle Hulme
Cheadle Hulme
Cheadle Hulme is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southwest of Stockport and southeast of the city of Manchester. It lies in the Ladybrook Valley on the Cheshire Plain, and the drift consists mostly of boulder clay, sands and gravels...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
. In January 2009, Waitrose announced the purchase of an additional 13 stores from Somerfield. Waitrose also does online shopping and was the first to offer a free delivery service. This is in addition to Ocado.
Ocado is an online supermarket which sells Waitrose own brand products. It delivers in vans which have pictures of fruit and vegetables. The John Lewis Partnership pension fund previously owned 29% of Ocado, but fully divested itself of its share ownership in February 2011.
Direct services
On 3 October 2006, the Partnership launched a direct services company named Greenbee. Greenbee provided travelTravel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
, leisure
Leisure
Leisure, or free time, is time spent away from business, work, and domestic chores. It is also the periods of time before or after necessary activities such as eating, sleeping and, where it is compulsory, education....
and financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
. Initially, the company offered home
Home insurance
Home insurance, also commonly called hazard insurance or homeowner's insurance , is the type of property insurance that covers private homes...
, travel
Travel insurance
Travel insurance is insurance that is intended to cover medical expenses, financial default of travel suppliers, and other losses incurred while traveling, either within one's own country, or internationally...
, wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
and events insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
as well as a travel and ticket
Ticket (admission)
A ticket is a voucher that indicates that one has paid for admission to an event or establishment such as a theatre, movie theater, amusement park, zoo, museum, concert, or other attraction, or permission to travel on a vehicle such as an airliner, train, bus, or boat, typically because one has...
s service. It subsequently expanded to offer other services including car
Vehicle insurance
Vehicle insurance is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise therefrom...
and pet insurance
Pet insurance
Pet health insurance pays the veterinary costs if one's pet becomes ill or is injured in an accident. Some policies will also pay out when the pet dies, or if it's lost or stolen....
, insurance for second homes and broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access.
In late 2010 Greenbee was absorbed into the John Lewis brand and insurance services are now offered under the John Lewis Insurance brand. Broadband and telephone services will continue to be provided by John Lewis.
Credit cards and account (store) cards
Unusually, John Lewis department stores did not accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards until 1999, previously only accepting the John Lewis Account Card (a form of charge cardCharge card
A charge card is a card that provides an alternative payment to cash when making purchases in which the issuer and the cardholder enter into an agreement that the debt incurred on the charge account will be paid in full and by due date or be subject to severe late fees and restrictions on card...
) and the Switch (now Maestro
Maestro (debit card)
Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by MasterCard, and was founded in 1990. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards...
) and Delta (now Visa Debit
Visa Debit
Visa Debit is a major debit card issued by Visa in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and other nations of the European Union. Prior to October 2004, the debit card was known as Visa Delta. Since June 2009, the major banks in the UK have begun issuing Visa Debit. Barclays, Bank of...
) debit cards.
On 28 March 2004, the John Lewis Partnership announced the launch of their own credit card — the Partnership card. This was launched with HFC
HSBC Finance
HSBC Finance Corporation is a financial services company and a member of the British HSBC Group. It is the sixth-largest issuer of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the United States...
which is a division of the banking giant HSBC
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...
. It was launched as a MasterCard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
with a choice of four designs (effectively four different colours).
The credit card follows on from, and supersedes, the John Lewis (and Waitrose) account cards which have been around for 40 years. These cards are no longer available, and holders of these are being encouraged to replace them with the Partnership card. They can, however, still be used, and some cards from the mid-1970s are still in use.
The Partnership card is designed as a cashback
Credit card cashback
When accepting payment by credit card, merchants typically pay a percentage of the transaction amount in commission to their bank or merchant services provider. Many credit card issuers, particularly those in the United Kingdom and United States, share the commission with the card holder by giving...
credit card, with 6 months interest free credit and a 16.9% APR
Annual percentage rate
The term annual percentage rate , also called nominal APR, and the term effective APR, also called EAR, describe the interest rate for a whole year , rather than just a monthly fee/rate, as applied on a loan, mortgage loan, credit card, etc. It is a finance charge expressed as an annual rate...
. It offers a 1% rebate for purchases at stores (including online stores) that are members of the John Lewis Partnership (such as John Lewis
John Lewis (department store)
-Recent developments:In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of...
and Waitrose
Waitrose
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...
). For purchases at other stores it offers a rate of 0.5%. The rebate is awarded as vouchers which can be spent in a store of the John Lewis Partnership. Vouchers are earned by accumulating points, with 1 point awarded for every £1 spent in John Lewis Partnership stores, and every £2 spent elsewhere. 500 points earns a £5 voucher. Earned vouchers are sent to card holders by post and can be spent in a store of the John Lewis Partnership.
Manufacturing
The John Lewis Partnership currently operates one manufacturing business, Herbert Parkinson, in DarwenDarwen
Darwen is a market town and civil parish located within Lancashire, England. Along with its northerly neighbour, Blackburn, it forms the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen — a unitary authority area...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. This company, established as a weaver of jacquard fabrics in 1934, was acquired by the partnership in 1953. Herbert Parkinson currently produce John Lewis own brand fabrics and curtains as well as filled furnishing products such as cushions and pillows. The company operates a wholesale business to outside customers in addition to supplying John Lewis Partnership branches.
Until September 2007, the partnership also owned two further textile production businesses: Carlisle-based printer Stead McAlpin (founded c. 1875, 200 workers) and Haslingden
Haslingden
Haslingden is a small town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels', though the town is in fact set on a high and windy hill. In the early 20th century Haslingden had the status of a municipal borough, but following local government...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
-based weaver J H Birtwistle. In spite of capital investment and improvements in efficiency, neither had been profitable for almost 10 years. Apex Textiles, whose managing director is Jim Kidd, was formed to buy the businesses.
The partnership announced its intention to retain both businesses as key suppliers once they were under new ownership and to agree ex gratia
Ex gratia
Ex gratia is Latin for "by favour", and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ex gratia, it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace...
payments to partners employed at the affected sites.