with lewis s. john lewis partnership the corporate john lewis partnership logo type partnership industry retail founded oxford street london 1929 1 founder john spedan lewis headquarters london england uk key people sir charlie mayfield executive chairman andy street managing director john lewis rob collins managing director waitrose products clothing watches & jewellery giftwares cosmetics housewares furniture beds & bedding audio visual computing photography food direct services financial services revenue 9.5 billion 2013 net income 409.6 million 2012 13 2 number of employees 91 500 2016 3 subsidiaries waitrose john lewis website www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk the john lewis partnership jlp is an employee owned uk company which operates john lewis department stores waitrose supermarkets its banking and financial services and other retail related activities . the company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees known as partners who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits which is usually a significant addition to their salary . the jlp group is the third largest uk private company in the sunday times top track 100 for 2010 . 4 john lewis also has the distinction of being the uk s best high street website after beating marks & spencer in october 2010 . 5 the chain s image is upmarket and it appeals strongly to middle and upper class shoppers . recently however john lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers with the introduction of the value range to john lewis and the essential range to waitrose and the expansion of the business . the partnership also supplies the ocado web supermarket with waitrose own brand foods and john lewis own brand non food items . contents 1 history 1.1 1860s origins 1.2 1900s family disagreements 1.3 1910s 1.4 1920s 1.5 1930s expansion 1.6 1940s ww2 1.7 1950s 1.8 2000s 2 organisation of the partnership 3 financial performance 4 department stores 4.1 john lewis 4.2 peter jones 5 supermarkets 6 direct services 7 manufacturing 8 see also 9 notes 10 references 11 external links history edit 1860s origins edit john lewis opened a drapery shop at 132 oxford street london in 1864 . born in shepton mallet in somerset in 1836 he had been apprenticed at 14 to a linen draper in wells . he came to london in 1856 and worked as a salesman for peter robinson an oxford street draper rising to be his silk buyer . in 1864 he turned down robinson s offer of a partnership and rented his own premises on the north side of oxford street on part of the site now occupied by the department store which bears his name . there he sold silk and woollen cloth and haberdashery . his retailing philosophy was to buy good quality merchandise and sell it at a modest mark up . although he carried a wide range of merchandise he didn t bother much about displaying it and never advertised . his skill lay in sourcing the goods he sold and most mornings he would go to the city accompanied by a man with a hand barrow . later he would make trips to paris to buy silks . 6 lewis spurned holidays and games and devoted himself entirely to the business which was successful . he invested the money he made from it in residential and small retail properties many of which he never visited . he expanded the oxford street business by renting neighbouring properties on oxford street and then along holles street and gradually moved into other classes of merchandise first the new area of ready made women s apparel and later children s wear and furniture . he never held sales saying that he was intent on building a sound permanent business . 7 in 1884 aged 48 lewis married eliza baker a schoolmistress with a university education who was 18 years his junior . they set up home in a mansion on the edge of hampstead heath for which lewis made up the name spedan tower after his aunt ann speed 8 and when eliza bore a son in 1885 he was called john spedan lewis . a second son oswald lewis was born in 1887 . after westminster school both sons joined lewis in the business and he gave each of them a quarter share of it on their twenty first birthdays . 6 1900s family disagreements edit there was constant quarrelling between lewis and his sons . by 1909 oswald wanted out and lewis senior reluctantly agreed to buy back oswald s quarter share of the business for 50 000 equivalent to about 4.5 million in 2010 . oswald went to read law at oxford qualified as a barrister and became a cavalry officer in 1914 but was injured and discharged in 1916 whereupon he accepted an invitation from his father to rejoin the business . 7 lewis had several run ins with lord howard de walden his oxford street landlord and in 1903 he spent three weeks in brixton prison for defying a court order obtained by de walden . in 1911 de walden sued him for libel ; lewis was found guilty but the jury awarded damages of just a farthing . in 1906 lewis bought a controlling interest in the sloane square based business peter jones limited the eponymous founder of which had died the previous year . lewis walked from oxford street with the 20 000 purchase price in bank notes . 6 1910s edit in the next 13 years the peter jones business was not profitable no dividends were paid to lewis and the external shareholders and in desperation in 1914 lewis appointed his son spedan as chairman of peter jones . this gave spedan lewis complete control and he decided that the underlying problem was that the staff had no incentive to do a good day s work because their own interests were not in line with those of the business . he shortened their working day and instituted a system of commission for each department paying selling staff amounts based on turnover . he held regular meetings at which staff could air any grievances directly with him . in 1916 after a disagreement with his father spedan lewis exchanged his 25 per cent interest in the oxford street business for lewis s shares in peter jones limited . he made improvements in staff conditions including granting a third weeks paid holiday each year . he had hot and cold running water installed in the staff bedrooms over the shop . in 1918 he started publishing a fortnightly newspaper telling staff how the business was faring . in 1919 he instituted a staff council the first decision of which was that staff should be paid weekly instead of four weekly . business prospered there was a profit of 20 000 in 1920 . 7 spedan lewis s radical idea was that the profits generated by business should not be paid solely to shareholders as a reward for their capital . shareholders should receive a reasonable but limited return and labour should be the recipient of the excess . his concept of fairer shares involved sharing gain knowledge and power . in 1920 spedan started distributing peter jones preference shares to staff who were now called partners . in contrast john lewis made no improvements to the conditions of his staff and grievances built up to such an extent that in 1920 there was a five week strike at oxford street . despite support for the strikers from among others queen mary lewis sacked them and engaged new staff . 1920s edit the early 1920s were not successful for peter jones . dividends on preference shares many of which were held by partners were not paid . in 1924 there was a reconciliation between john lewis and spedan lewis . trade at oxford street had fared better and john lewis made a cash injection into the sloane square business . 7 in 1925 spedan lewis devised the slogan never knowingly undersold at peter jones . intended mainly as a control on sourcing merchandise it also meant that customers could shop knowing that they were not paying more at peter jones than they could buy identical goods for at other stores . trade improved and profit sharing was resumed . by 1926 lewis senior was 90 spedan was impatient to gain control of john lewis oxford street so that he could implement his radical ideas there and oswald again wanted out . without telling their father spedan took out a bank loan and bought out oswald s inheritance . after going round the world oswald embarked on a political career becoming conservative party mp for colchester in 1929 and holding the seat until 1945 . john lewis died aged 92 in 1928 and spedan lewis became sole owner of the oxford street business in addition to peter jones . that same year he bought the premises of t j harries on the eastern side of holles street in oxford street into which he expanded john lewis . in 1929 spedan lewis signed a deed of settlement which transferred shares in john lewis & co. limited and peter jones limited to trustees himself his wife and his brother in law . the profits of the combined business would be distributed to its employees either as cash or as fixed interest stock in the new company john lewis partnership limited . in return spedan lewis took 1 million of non interest paying loan stock which would be repaid to him over thirty years . he would retain personal control of the business but would not receive any interest fees or salary living on the repayment of the loan stock . these annual capital repayments were initially equivalent to about 1.5 million in 2010 money but inflation reduced their value by the 1950s to the equivalent of about 0.5 million in 2010 money . 1930s expansion edit in 1933 the john lewis partnership started acquiring other retail businesses buying jessop & son of nottingham and lance & lance of weston super mare . in 1934 it acquired knight & lee in southsea and tyrrell & green in southampton . it also started rebuilding peter jones to a modern design . in 1937 it bought waitrose limited which operated ten counter service grocery shops in london and the home counties . 9 1940s ww2 edit the biggest acquisition came in 1940 when the john lewis partnership paid 30 000 for selfridge provincial stores limited which owned 16 shops blinkhorn & son in gloucester and stroud buckleys in harrogate a h bull in reading bon march in brixton caleys in windsor cole brothers in sheffield george henry lee in liverpool holdrons in peckham john barnes in hampstead jones brothers in holloway pratts in streatham quin & axten in brixton robert sayle in cambridge thomsons in peterborough and trewin brothers in watford although many of these stores were subsequently closed or repurposed in later years . the business now comprised 31 department stores 10 at home shops 2 convenience driven formats . the second world war took its toll and several stores were damaged by bombing notably the west house of john lewis oxford street on the west side of holles street which was lost completely in september 1940 . some small businesses were acquired including the john pound leather goods shops and two further department stores . in 1948 three drapery stores were created in south africa but were closed in 1954 . 1950s edit in 1950 spedan lewis executed a second deed of settlement which passed ownership of the john lewis partnership to trustees to hold for the benefit of those who worked in the business . he continued to manage it as if he were still the owner saying in 1957 that it was necessary to concentrate management in one pair of hands . 10