There is never an easy way to announce a hefty pay rise at the top while headcount is falling on the shop floor, and the John Lewis Partnership’s latest annual report lays that tension bare.
Jason Tarry (pictured), who took the chair of the employee-owned retailer in September 2024, saw his basic salary lifted from £990,000 to £1.2m for the year to January, a rise of just over a fifth. Factor in a modest annual bonus worth 2 per cent of pay, plus other benefits, and his total package nudged close to £1.26m.
The partnership justified the increase by pointing out that Tarry now combines the roles of chairman and chief executive, following the departure of Nish Kankiwala, whose position was scrapped. His predecessor Sharon White was on the same base salary of £990,000 throughout her tenure and took home a total of £1.12m in each of her last two full years, during which no bonus was paid at all.
For context, Tarry’s remuneration remains some way below the £1.53m peak reached by former chairman Charlie Mayfield in 2015, and well short of the nearly £2m paid to the Co-op Group’s former chief last year. A reduction in the number of senior roles also meant the total bill for key management, including directors, held steady at £8m.
Yet it is the workforce numbers that will attract closer scrutiny. The partnership now employs 65,700 people, down from 69,000 a year earlier, with Waitrose losing roughly 1,800 full-time positions and John Lewis shedding around 1,500. A spokesperson said the vast majority of departures reflected natural attrition, with fewer than 0.5 per cent of partners leaving through redundancy.
The trajectory, however, tells a starker story. The group had 76,400 staff on its books in 2023, and has now cut some 10,700 roles in the space of three years — broadly in line with earlier reports that it was considering the removal of up to 11,000 positions by 2029. In March the business signalled it would continue to pursue efficiencies, including greater use of electronic shelf labels and artificial intelligence, though it declined to say whether further reductions were on the cards.
There are brighter notes in the report. The partnership paid an annual bonus to all staff in March for the first time in four years, after underlying profits rose 6 per cent. Every employee, the chairman included, received the equivalent of 2 per cent of their salary.
Tarry’s first 18 months have been defined by a return to retail fundamentals: better stores, improved product availability and higher pay for frontline workers. The group is investing £800m across its estate and has already refurbished 23 Waitrose branches and five John Lewis stores over the past year. The department store chain has drawn queues with the high-street revival of Topshop and seen renewed footfall thanks to the return of its famous “never knowingly undersold” pledge.
While 16 John Lewis department stores have closed in recent years, the chain remains the largest of its kind in Britain, buoyed by the collapse of former rivals Debenhams and Beales and the radical downsizing of House of Fraser.
It has not all been smooth sailing under Tarry, however. The partnership faced criticism after letting go an autistic man who had volunteered as an unpaid shelf stacker at a Waitrose branch for years. More recently, the dismissal of a 17-year employee who intervened to stop a shoplifter stealing Lindt gold bunny Easter eggs attracted widespread attention, and a prompt job offer from rival grocer Iceland.
For a business built on the principle that every worker is a partner, squaring executive pay rises with a shrinking workforce will remain one of the defining challenges of Tarry’s leadership. The numbers may add up on paper, but the optics require careful handling in a retailer whose brand is inseparable from the people who run it.
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John Lewis chairman’s pay climbs 21% to £1.2m as 3,300 roles disappear across the partnership