John Lewis Partnership (John Lewis) is one of the UK's top 10 retail companies; it supplies consumer goods to the fashion, household and food markets. It is also the country's largest employee co-operative with 44,100 full time employee equivalents.

The John Lewis Partnership operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and the direct services company Greenbee. Unusually, it is a public limited company that is held on trust on behalf of all its employees (called partners) - who have a say in the running of the business and receive an annual profit distribution which is usually a significant addition to their annual salary. The company is the 3rd largest UK private company in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2008. The chain's image is upmarket, and it appeals strongly to a middle class core of shoppers. Recently, however, John Lewis have broadened their marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the 'Simply' range to John Lewis and the 'Essential' range to Waitrose, and the expansion of the business.

The partnership supplies the Ocado web supermarket, with Waitrose own-brand foods, and John Lewis own-brand non-food items.

History

The business was founded in 1864 when John Lewis 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 March 2008, there are 67,000 partners – the majority full-time – working for the John Lewis Partnership.

The principle and slogan Never knowingly undersold was adopted in 1925. It was created by Spedan Lewis and applied to the company's Peter Jones store. 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 online shopping. However, they were the only large retailer that would match the price with any UK shop, not restricting it to a local area, until DSGi 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).

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 2008 was 20% 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.

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.