John Lewis Partnership chair Dame Sharon White is set to step down from her role in February 2025 after her five-year term ends.
White has asked the board to begin the search for her successor and to “review the accountabilities of the chair’s role to ensure that these continue to support the… transformation of the business”.
During her tenure, the partnership began a major strategy to enter the build-to-rent sector. It also slimmed down its office footprint and closed some stores. More recently, it is seeking to raise some £150m from the sale and leaseback of a Waitrose supermarket portfolio.
White, who will be the shortest-serving chair in JLP’s history, said: “Having led the partnership through the pandemic and the worst of the cost-of-living crisis, it is important that there is now a smooth and orderly succession process and handover.
“The partnership is making progress in its modernisation and transformation with improving results. There is a long road ahead, and I am committed to handing on the strongest possible partnership to my successor.”
Retail analysts have so far reacted to the news with little surprise, pointing to a challenging tenure in an “exceedingly rocky” period.
Jonathan De Mello, founder of JDM Retail, said: “It comes as no surprise that Dame Sharon White’s tenure as chair of John Lewis Partnership will soon come to an end. Under her stewardship JLP has been mostly loss-making, and though the business has had to contend with both Covid and the cost-of-living crisis in that time, peers such as M&S have not experienced the same level of decline.
“Much of the issues JLP faces are of its own making – lack of direction at Waitrose, mooted changes to its unique partnership model, and an aspiration to become a property developer, to name a few – and ultimately Dame Sharon is responsible for these.
“One can only hope that whoever replaces her focuses on getting back to basics, with good retailing once again at the core of everything JLP does and stands for. The business very much can turn things around, which – sadly for Dame Sharon – will mean scrapping a number of the ideas she and her team have been trying to enact over the past few years.”
Zoe Mills, lead retail analyst at GlobalData, said: “Dame Sharon White has been at the helm of the John Lewis Partnership during an exceedingly rocky period. She has faced unprecedented challenges, namely the global pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Indeed, while she will have been its shortest-serving chair, she will have withstood at least four prime ministers during her tenure.
“White oversaw the removal of the ‘never knowingly undersold’ price promise but failed to replace it with anything meaningful. The implementation of its Anyday range has been successful to some degree in enabling customers to trade down within the store as the cost-of-living crisis hit, but it has noticeably reduced marketing of the brand over the past year, indicating that it may have damaged quality perceptions of the retailer.”
Mills added: “Her time has been marred by controversy when discussions of altering the employee-owned structure of the partnership were revealed but quickly shelved. It was a spectacularly ill-judged move that damaged her credibility with partners, though she did survive a subsequent vote of confidence on her leadership.
“Weak 2022/23 financial-year results and the subsequent lack of the partnership bonus will ensure that White does not leave on a high. For whoever takes over the position in early 2025, they will face significant challenges – the most important being that they ensure that the two-year delay on its transformation plan slips no further.”
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