Knowingly undersold Extracts from Mary Portas’s scathing open letter to Dame Sharon White – and her response

23rd March 2023

Dear Sharon and Nish You see, you are not simply chair and chief exec. You are custodians of one of the most valued, loved, and trusted retail brands this country has. John Lewis and Waitrose are part of the fabric of everyday British life. They’ve been synonymous with fair values and trust for generations. Built on shared employee ownership, and shared accountability.

So your task isn’t to turn around just another mediocre retailer under threat of going under. You’re fighting to save part of our collective cultural identity. But what’s worrying me is that you might think your fight is purely financial. It’s not. The battle in hand is far more nuanced. It’s about what makes up the soul of your brand. The intangibles, the shared beliefs, the beautiful things that can’t be captured in financial projections but earn a little space in people’s hearts. Somehow, in recent years, you’ve let go of the soul.

I get it. You need money men, financial innovation, new thinking. But never forget to balance all that with the commercially instinctive, reactive, creative, retail-born folk in the business It’s an art. Not a science.

Failure for John Lewis and Waitrose is not an option. We can’t lose you too.

24th March 2023

Dear Mary, It’s the biggest privilege of my life to be custodian of the Partnership. I am here to ensure that it not only survives, but thrives for generations. I became chairman because we are a co-owned business. It is why Nish, who has been in the Partnership for two years, takes up the role of chief executive on Monday.

I love our brands. Their strength isn’t an accident of our being a Partnership. It is because we are a Partnership. Our partners who own the business are our greatest asset and our ownership of the Partnership will remain.

100 million customers visited our John Lewis stores last year. That’s a third up on the previous year. We had half a billion customers visit our app and website.

We want our brands to continue to grow.

We’ve always been open to new partnerships with investors or like minded companies to share in our growth.

I will not rest until the Partnership is restored to full health.