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08 October 2024

Daily Newsletter

08 October 2024

John Lewis CEO to return to non-executive role in 2025

Following on from its multi-year transformation plan, UK retailer John Lewis Partnership has announced its chief executive officer (CEO) Nish Kankiwala and the Partnership board have agreed he will return to a non-executive role by March 2025, supporting chairman Jason Tarry and the board.

Shemona Safaya October 08 2024

John Lewis explained that reflecting on the significant progression of its transformation, particularly over the last two years, and given the work on the operating model for the business, the role of CEO will not be directly replaced. Chairman Tarry is expected to chair the executive team as well as the Partnership board.

Kankiwala will continue to support the next phase of the Partnership's transformation as a non-executive board advisor and will ensure a "smooth transition" with Tarry.

Reflecting on his tenure, Kankiwala said: "The board asked me to move across from my non-executive director role to chief executive back in March 2023. This was in view of such a significant time for the Partnership and to help accelerate this phase of the transformation. I was delighted to agree to take on the role for a two-year period during this time of pivotal change. Since then we’ve refreshed our Partnership strategy to be rooted in retail; significantly improved our cash flows to enable record investment for growth; and returned the Partnership to full-year profit.

"It’s been the privilege of my life to lead the Partnership as CEO during this period of intense transformation. I am hugely proud of what we’ve achieved so far - thanks to the hard work and dedication of our Partners. I have every confidence in Jason taking the Partnership from strength to strength in the next phase of our transformation and am delighted to continue to support him and the board in an advisory capacity going forward."

Tarry thanked Kankiwala for the pivotal role he has played for the Partnership, first as non-executive director of the board and recently as CEO.

Tarry added: "In the past two years he has been instrumental in accelerating the transformation of the Partnership. It's a pleasure to work alongside Nish and I’m grateful that he has agreed to stay on as a non-executive board advisor as his ongoing support will be invaluable."

John Lewis made strides in reducing its overall losses last month (September) following its financial results for the 26 weeks ending 27 July 2024, but its sales performance remains a concern, according to Zoe Mills, lead retail analyst at GlobalData.

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