John Lewis puts hundreds more jobs in doubt as revamp gathers pace

John Lewis Partnership has thrown the future of hundreds more jobs into doubt just a week after putting 1300 staff under threat of redundancy as new chairman Sharon White revamps the retail group.

The department store group has launched a consultation over 270 jobs spread across London and Bracknell, Berkshire in its technology “delivery and operations” division, the Standard has learned. Although the decision has sparked concern over redundancies internally, sources close to JLP management insisted the move was designed to reassign roles to bring the operations of John Lewis, based in London and Waitrose, headquartered in Bracknell, closer together.

In addition, some 49 partners in the mutual’s tech “architecture” division have entered a consultation as part of a drive to “develop a single partnership strategy”.

The consultation comes on top of a decision announced yesterday to outsource parts of its IT function offering “specialist IT application services” to French consultancy giant Capgemini. John Lewis said the move would affect 111 staff, who are expected to transfer to Capgemini later this year, stoking redundancy fears.

Sources close to the retailer said “a number of roles will be retained in the UK”, but its partners are concerned jobs will be lost with roles moved offshore. The outsourced work helps support functions including trading, supply chain, finance and personnel systems.

The company’s chief technology officer Andrew MacInnes is leaving after five years at the partnership. He follows Clare Stephens, head of technology strategy and application architecture, out of the door. In an email to staff, seen by the Standard, chief information officer Mike Sackman said: “In light of Andy’s departure I have decided not to retain the CTO role but, instead, streamline the number of leadership roles and levels in Architecture.”

The Capgemini decision echoes a move announced earlier this month to outsource 244 IT jobs in Bracknell to Indian tech giant Wipro this November.

The mutual has been looking at overhauling its IT department including outsourcing for 18 months. The department, called Tech & Change, contains around 700 of its 80,000 partners.

The latest revamp comes as White continues her reshaping of the High Street stalwart, after joining earlier this year. Evening Standard revealed earlier this month that she had informed staff that some John Lewis stores would not reopen after the pandemic, and last week the partnership said eight shops were not to trade again, likely at a cost of 1300 jobs.

White is expected to receive the findings of a wide-ranging strategy review later this month, and lay out her plans for the group later this year. She expects online sales to represent a far greater proportion of revenues post-Covid.