The John Lewis Partnership has released unaudited full year results for the year to 27th January:
- Profit before tax and exceptional items of £42m, an improvement of £120m compared to a £78m loss in 2022/23
- Profit before tax of £56m, a £290m improvement year-on-year
- Operating profit margins increased 1.2 percentage points in the year
- Partnership sales were £12.4bn, up 1% on last year
- One million more customers shopped with JLP in the year taking the total to 22.6 million
- Net cash generated from operating activities increased by £201m to £433m and total liquidity increased to £1.7bn
- Improved Debt ratio from 4.4x to 3.4x
- Improved performance will allow accelerated investment (£542m planned this year, up from £312m in 2023/24) and highest ever pay investment for partners amounting to £116m. There will be no Partnership Bonus paid this year
John Lewis (department store business)
- John Lewis sales were £4.8bn, down 4% YoY.
- Sales in Fashion, including Beauty, were up on the year while sales were weaker in Home and Technology.
- John Lewis attracted a record 13.4 million customers.
- Trading Operating Profit of £689m was £13m better year-on-year
- Gross margin improvement of 1.0 percentage point and efficiency savings across supply chain and stores underpinned this improvement.
- Introduced over 170 new brands.
- Customers continued to turn to John Lewis for independent, unbiased advice; over 200 Partners are now dedicated to fashion personal styling (appointments up 27%), nursery (appointments up 25%) and home (appointments up 5%).
- Enhanced the customer experience across the John Lewis app and website, making it quicker and easier to shop online for delivery or collection at over 13,000 locations.
- 53% of customers use digital channels for their shopping.
