‘They don’t sell good suits anymore’: Andy Street, former boss of John Lewis, is suing the troubled shopkeeper
Former John Lewis boss Andy Street has criticized the troubled shopkeeper – even complaining that it ‘doesn’t sell good suits anymore’.
Another setback for the group behind the department store chain and Waitrose supermarkets was that Street questioned boss Dame Sharon White’s strategy.
And he lamented the choice shoppers have in menswear, adding that he prefers to go to local tailors.
“They don’t sell good suits anymore,” says Street, who led John Lewis for nine years until 2016 and is now the Tory mayor of the West Midlands.
The comments, in an interview with Bloomberg, underline the struggle the partnership – whose first store opened in 1864 – is fighting to convince critics that it is on the mend.
Concerns: Former John Lewis boss Andy Street questioned current boss Dame Sharon White’s strategy and complained about the choice shoppers have in menswear
White tries to turn around the loss-making business. But she faced backlash from the employee-owned group.
In a non-binding vote earlier this month on her performance last year, only four of the 55 members of the company’s board of directors endorsed her.
John Lewis crashed to a £234 million loss last year with staff not handing over an annual bonus, a historic blow, as former civil servant White took home a pay package of nearly £1 million.
There are also fears that the retailer could lose its mutual status as White chases to raise as much as £2bn to bail out the business.
Echoing those concerns, Street said, “They shouldn’t be pursuing demutualization or bringing in private funding.
The whole point of the John Lewis Partnership is that it is owned by its employees for their long-term benefit.
“And I don’t believe you can sell part of it and still achieve that goal, and I think the goal should come first, like the North Star.”
The crisis at John Lewis has sent a shock wave through the retail sector, with High Street adviser Mary Portas warning it has lost its soul.
Battle: John Lewis’s current boss, Dame Sharon White, is trying to turn around the loss-making business. But she faced backlash from the employee-owned group
And Street added, “It would be a real tragedy if any part of it were to be sold.” Ahead of the vote earlier this month, White told worker representatives, “I want to be absolutely categorical.
“The John Lewis Partnership will always be an employee-owned company – no ifs, no buts.
‘There is absolutely no question of demutualisation.’ Street also criticized the company for trying to diversify beyond its retail business, including a £500 million deal with asset manager Abdrn to build 1,000 rental homes.
He said, “I really don’t know why they decided to do that.”
Global Data retail analyst Neil Saunders, who used to be a partner at John Lewis, said White had to “go back to retail basics” because “without retail, there’s no business.”