John Lewis department stores close amid coronavirus crisis

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Mar 23, 2020

All John Lewis shops are closing their doors this Monday as part of temporary measures to halt the spread of coronavirus.

The John Lewis Partnership has announced that over 2,000 John Lewis members of staff have been redeployed to Waitrose to assist with the unprecedented demand for grocery and other essential goods.

This will be the first time in its 155-year history that it will not open its shop doors for customers.

Johnlewis.com, which generates half of the department store’s business, will continue to operate as normal, with the company expecting to see an increase in sales in Electricals & Home Technology as people continue to work from home.

The online site will continue to offer home delivery and click & collect from Waitrose.

Chairman Sharon White said: "The welfare of our customers, communities and partners is always our absolute priority. While it is with a heavy heart that we temporarily close our John Lewis shops, our partners will, where possible, be taking on important roles in supporting their fellow partners, providing critical services in Waitrose shops and ensuring our customers can get what they need through johnlewis.com, which is seeing extremely strong demand.”

Despite the financial impact of the pandemic, the company insisted on its resilience and strength. In a statement released on Friday it welcomed the introduction of a business rates holiday, which will help it save £160 million over the next 12 months, and outlined various steps to protect its liquidity. 

These include reducing its capital and investment expenditure by postponing projects, reducing the supply pipeline to reflect the changes in terms of demand and reducing non-essential spend such as marketing investment.

The Partnership has £1.5 billion of liquidity, consisting of over £950 million cash and £500 million of undrawn committed credit facilities. This should be enough to see the business through these tough times, John Lewis said.