John Lewis chair Dame Sharon White has won a confidence vote on her future leadership but lost a second ballot cast by the retailer’s partnership council on last year’s performance.
The employee-owned mutual did not disclose the number of votes cast in favour or against White’s turnround plan for the chain beloved by Middle England. Voting took place on Wednesday at the Odney Club, a retreat near Maidenhead, Berkshire, that is owned by the retailer.
Chris Earnshaw, president of the partnership council, said: “The council voted in support of the chair to progress the partnership in relation to its purpose, principles and rules.
“The council did not support last year’s performance, in which we reported a full-year loss and no partner bonus.”
Although the results are non-binding, they come at a challenging time for White. She has faced criticism from some employees after the group, which owns the eponymous department store chain and grocery business Waitrose, posted a £234mn loss for the year to January and cancelled its prized staff bonus for the second time in three years, while also warning of job cuts.
John Lewis’s new chief executive, Nish Kankiwala, warned last month that the group was “fundamentally not producing sufficient profit”.
The councillors, a democratically elected body of more than 60 employees set up to hold the chair to account, meet twice a year to scrutinise the company’s performance and pass a vote of confidence in its leadership.
White told the councillors during Wednesday’s meeting that there was “absolutely no question of demutualisation” after news reports in March that the management team was considering raising outside investment in return for a minority stake in the business.
However, she added that “if at any point the partnership were unable to fund our [turnround] plan through our own means” the board could consider external funds.
The voting process was overhauled this year to comprise of two votes: whether staff have confidence in the progress of the partnership under the chair’s leadership over the past year, and whether they support the chair to progress the partnership under their leadership. The questions were answered on a scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.
During the meeting, White quoted British writer Vivien Greene, in reference to the retailer’s recent travails: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”.
The group declined to comment on the votes.
