Waitrose staff will enjoy a 15% bonus this year, slightly down from 17% last year, as the upmarket retailer reported growing sales and profits.
Around 91,000 partners at Waitrose and John Lewis will share in a £202.5m bonus pot, equivalent to around eight weeks’ pay, the John Lewis Partnership said today.
Like-for-like sales (excluding petrol) at Waitrose grew 5.1% to £6.1bn for the year ending 25 January 2014, while operating profit also grew 6.1% to £310.1m.
Charlie Mayfield, JLP chairman, said the business was adapting to “fundamental changes taking place in retail” and said both Waitrose and John Lewis were embracing innovation.
“We have improved our omni-channel offer significantly with new online platforms for both brands and expansion of the hugely popular click & collect service,” he said.
“We have also introduced greater personalisation to the relationship with customers, particularly with myWaitrose. To deliver all of this we continue to make improvements to branch structures and are giving greater emphasis to the importance of our leadership teams creating opportunities for individual partners.”
The myWaitrose card, which offers free tea and coffee and a 10% discount on selected lines, has proven a success, with 68% of sales now made to cardholders.
Waitrose’s online operation reported gross sales up 41.1% to £262m.
Meanwhile, the retailer continued its physical expansion, opening 13 new stores during the year, five of them in Little Waitrose format, and refurbished 11. Waitrose said it would open 38 new branches in the coming year, including 23 Little Waitrose stores.
Total sales at the John Lewis Partnership rose 6.6% to £10.1bn, but the company took a hit of £47.3m after discovered it had underpaid staff holiday pay. This helped push profit before tax down 4.1% to £329.1m.
The company’s pension deficit grew 22.1% to £1bn. In January, it outlined proposed changes to its final salary scheme to tackle its deficit.
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