John Lewis is to team up with Covid testing firm Randox Health to open clinics within its shops in the latest effort to draw in customers amid tough trading conditions.
The clinics, which will be run by Randox staff, will offer full-body health checks including tests for vitamin deficiencies, hormone imbalances and key health concerns, among other services.
Appointments at the first clinic, which will open in John Lewis’s High Wycombe store, will begin on 18 December. Customers will be able to sign up to Randox programmes, starting at £295.
Further openings will follow at stores in Bluewater shopping centre in Kent in December and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in January, with the potential for further openings in future.
Randox Health has more than 20 clinics across the UK. Its parent company, which was set up in 1982 but grew rapidly as a provider of Covid tests during the pandemic, was at the centre of a lobbying scandal involving the Conservative MP Owen Paterson.
John Lewis has been aiming to increase services on offer as the rise of online retail and shift to working from home since the pandemic reduced the number of visitors to high streets and shopping centres.
The changes are part of an overhaul under its chair, Sharon White, who joined in 2020 but will step down when her five-year term ends in February 2025.
She announced her exit in October as rising costs and lacklustre consumer spending saw the parent group John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose supermarkets, report a £59m loss for the six months to 29 July. The group has said its turnaround will take two years longer than planned.
The retailer already hosts opticians, travel agents, beauty treatments and personal shopping services as part of its effort to provide shoppers with services that cannot be bought online.
Sales across its department stores fell 2% to £2.1bn in its first half, although visitor numbers were up 8%.
Naomi Simcock, the head of the John Lewis chain, said: “As trusted stores for local communities across the country, we can play an important role by making services like healthcare and wellness more convenient and accessible.
“In Randox we have an experienced and innovative partner to extend our range of in-store services, to help customers proactively manage their health and wellbeing.”
