John Lewis’s managing director, Paula Nickolds, has been forced out after disappointing Christmas trading figures.
Nickolds has worked at the Partnership for 25 years.
Sales at the department store fell by 2.3% year-on-year to £1.13bn for the seven weeks to January 3, having grown during the same period last year by 1%. This has dragged down the total sales figures for the John Lewis Partnership, which includes Waitrose, to £2.17bn, a fall of 1.8%.
Waitrose sales fell by 1.3% to £1.03bn, but the drop was only caused by store closures. Like-for-like sales in fact grew by 0.4%.
The Partnership is considering not paying its usual star bonus this year.
