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John Lewis Partnership staff to share £200m bonus pot
Employees to receive payouts worth eight weeks' pay despite looming cutbacks
STAFF AT John Lewis and Waitrose will receive bonuses worth the equivalent of eight weeks' pay when the group announces its annual results this week.
The employee windfall, worth a total of £200 million, marks a one per cent increase on the payout employees received in 2012, reports the Daily Telegraph. John Lewis Partnership is expected to unveil a 17 per cent increase in profits to £415 million for the year to January, with sales rising 10 per cent to £8.5 billion – a boost which will allow the company to hand staff a bonus worth 15 per cent of their salary.
Retail analyst Nick Bubb told the Mail on Sunday that JLP has capitalised on "disarray" among rival supermarkets and Marks & Spencer. He added that he thought John Lewis's profits should have been higher because of the firm's strong start to 2012.
Indeed despite the bumper bonuses and the rise in profits, John Lewis is set to axe the jobs of 325 department managers, as part of its Retail Revolution plans, according to reports last month. One insider said the jobs had to go because the majority of the chain's sales growth was online, not in-store. The Daily Telegraph says the firm is set to make further cuts when it relocates its distribution centre from Park Royal, London, where 650 staff are employed, to Magna Park in Milton Keynes, which will be run by 450 staff.
The majority of the group's profits come from high-class supermarket chain Waitrose, which enjoyed twice the rate of growth of the wider grocery market last year. ·
