Chairman’s statement

Key figures

Average number of employees

2010/11 - 74,800

2009/10 - 70,000

2008/09 - 68,000

Total revenue £m

2010/11 - 7,361.8

2009/10 - 6,734.6

2008/09 - 6,267.2

Profit before Partnership bonus and tax £m

2010/11 - 369.7

2009/10 - 306.6

2008/09 - 407.0

Profit for the year retained in the business £m

2010/11 - 127.4

2009/10 - 106.5

2008/09 - 233.5

Partnership Bonus £M

2010/11 - 194.5

2009/10 - 151.3

2008/09 - 125.4

2010/11 saw the Partnership reap the benefit of decisions made to invest during the recession. Both John Lewis and Waitrose had strong sales growth, increased market share, developed their online offers, and opened new shops and formats.

Continuing this sustainable, commercial success requires a real commitment to doing business responsibly. For us, this commitment is not only driven by good economics, but also by the Partnership spirit and our sense of doing the ‘right thing’, as set out in our core purpose and principles.

A year in review

We took a more strategic approach to CSR in 2010/11, by embedding our commitment even further into our investment plans and commercial decisionmaking. This included reviewing our CSR programmes, setting challenging targets and developing initiatives to focus on over the coming years. At a divisional level, we established ‘Bringing Quality to Life’ in John Lewis and ‘the Waitrose way’ – initiatives to help our customers make more informed and sustainable choices.

After careful consideration, we set an ambitious carbon reduction target to achieve a 15% absolute reduction in operational CO2 equivalent emissions by 2020/21, against a 2010/11 baseline. To achieve this, we’ve developed a detailed carbon reduction plan including initiatives such as developing renewable energy generation centres at our shops.

We also reviewed our community strategy to better define what community means in our growing business. This has given us food for thought on developing our community investment and engagement, and I look forward to reporting our progress next year.

Looking ahead

We have ambitious plans to grow our business, but one thing is clear: the Partnership is committed to achieving this growth responsibly.

Building on what we’ve learnt so far, we will continue to invest in responsible, sustainable ways of doing business.

Charlie Mayfield

Chairman, John Lewis Partnership