Sharon White, the chair of British retailer John Lewis Partnership, plans to step down in Februray 2025at the end of her five-year term.
White has asked the board of John Lewis – Britain’s biggest department store chain, which also operates Waitrose supermarkets – to start looking for a successor as she will not seek a second term.
Her resignation makes White the shortest serving chair in the business’s history, according to the BBC, which first reported her planned exit.
She has also requested a review of the chair’s accountabilities to ensure that these continue to support a turnaround plan.
White said: “Having led the partnership through the pandemic and the worst of the cost of living crisis, it is important that there is now a smooth and orderly succession process and handover.
“The partnership is making progress in its modernisation and transformation with improving results. There is a long road ahead and I am committed to handing on the strongest possible partnership to my successor.”
She said the chair of John Lewis was “a special and unique role in UK business” with responsibilities for the “long-term health” of the group’s staff-owned model which aimed for “commercial success twinned with a commitment to first rate customer service and action in our communities”.
White’s decision to step down comes after she announced last month that the group’s turnaround would take two years longer than planned and cost more money after reporting another loss for the most recent six months.
Her tenure has been mired in controversy including a reported plan to sell a stake in the business to raise more than £1bn, which was shelved after she narrowly won a vote of confidence in which staff backed her to continue but expressed dismay at the retailer’s poor performance.
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White’s lack of retail experience has also been seen as partly to blame for a stint of poor performance at Waitrose which suffered from a mix of IT problems and a failure to cut prices quickly enough when the cost of living crisis hit.
