John Lewis staff share £151m bonus pot

John Lewis Partnership, the renowned employee-owned department store, has revealed its staff will share a bonus pot of £151 million.

The announcement came after the 146-year-old group said annual pre-tax profits grew 9.7% to £306.6 million.

According to John Lewis chairman, Charlie Mayfield, the company’s 70,000 staff – or partners, as John Lewis refers to them – will receive payouts equal to 15% of their annual salary, almost eight weeks’ pay.

The owner of the upmarket Waitrose chain said gross sales rose 6.5% to £7.4 billion as it continued to steal market share from its competitors.

Mr Mayfield comments: “Today’s results reflect the collective hard work of our partners”.

However, he cautioned that 2010 would still be tough for the business – particularly the latter half of the year.

In the meantime, its Waitrose chain opened 25 new shops last year – a dozen of which were acquired from the Co-op.

Waitrose managing director, Mark Price, recently pledged to double sales and market share over the next 10 years as the chain strives to become “more accessible to more people”.

Mr Price wants to double sales from the current £5 billion to £10 billion in the next decade and grow market share to 8% – from the current 4.3%. He also expects the chain to end 2010 as the fastest growing supermarket for the second consecutive year.

The chain is expected to open its first smaller convenience store format within the next two months.

It emerged that chefs Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal will act as food representatives for the brand and will also feature in the chain’s new advertising.

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