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John Lewis doesn’t sell proper suits any more, complains former boss
John Lewis does not sell “proper suits any more”, its former managing director Andy Street said, as the retailer faces mounting pressure to improve profits in its department stores.
Mr Street, now the mayor of the West Midlands, criticised the selection available in John Lewis menswear departments, adding that he preferred to shop at local tailors over his former employer.
It comes after the retailer’s losses widened by £82m last year, as the company has stepped up efforts to reduce costs by £600m before January 2026.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Mr Street also questioned Dame Sharon White's strategy, specifically its planned push into the housing market in a drive to generate more revenues.
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is converting former warehouses and stores into homes to rent out, as part of a move to diversify its income away from retail.
Mr Street, who helmed the partnership between 2007 and 2016, said: “I genuinely don't know why they've decided to do that.”
Pressure on Dame Sharon has mounted in recent weeks, leading to the chairman facing a backlash from staff over her management of the partnership. In a vote among JLP's 58-strong employee council earlier this month, staff said they did not have confidence in the company’s performance under her leadership over the past year.
It was deemed a public embarrassment by analysts, although Dame Sharon was backed in a second vote over her future strategy, with JLP claiming this was the more important of the two votes.
Mr Street told the Telegraph that he believed pressure from partners had been part of the reason why Dame Sharon had recently ruled out demutualisation. Earlier this year, it emerged that John Lewis was considering the sale of a stake in its business to help with its turnaround.
The proposal sparked criticism from industry leaders, as well as Mr Street who said it would be a “tragedy” if JLP changed its ownership model.
At the council meeting earlier this month, Dame Sharon said while the partnership would consider external investment if it was unable to fund its plans by its own means, there was "absolutely no question of demutualisation".
“I want to be absolutely categorical. The John Lewis Partnership will always be an employee-owned business, no ifs, no buts,” she added.
Mr Street said: “All that matters is that the right decision was taken by the chairman and her board.... I assume that pressure from partners was part of it. So actually I think it is a really good example of the ownership structure at John Lewis encouraging the leadership to take the right decision. It was the right decision, no question.”
He said John Lewis executives had been “encouraged, forced, whatever word you want to use, to come to the right decision”.