John Lewis Partnership plc annual report and accounts 2013

The John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is one of the UK’s leading retail businesses with 30 John Lewis department stores, 9 John Lewis at home stores, johnlewis.com, 255Waitrose supermarkets, 35Waitrose convenience stores, waitrose.com and business to business contracts in the UK and abroad.

It is also the country’s largest employee co-owned business, with 84,700 employees who are all Partners. The Partnership aims to ensure that everyone who works for it enjoys the experience of ownership, by sharing in the profits, by having access to information and by sharing in decision-making through the democratic process.

The Partnership believes that the commitment of Partners to the business is a unique source of competitive advantage which has underpinned over 80 years of growth and a highly regarded reputation amongst customers and suppliers.

The Partnership’s record of performance testifies to the robustness of the vision of its founder, John Spedan Lewis, to create a business dedicated to the happiness of the Partners through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business.

John Lewis Partnership plc and its subsidiary John Lewis plc have small issues of preference stock which have first claim on profits. The remaining profit is available to be used for the benefit of the business and the Partners. The share of profits allocated to Partners, the Partnership Bonus, is fixed each year by the Partnership Board and is distributed as the same percentage of gross annual pay to all Partners. All Partners received a 17% bonus for 2012/13 as their share of pre-tax profits, at a total cost of £210.8m.

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