John Lewis hired its first CEO in 2023 and returned to profit within 18 months

When Nish Kankiwala became John Lewis Partnership's first chief executive in March 2023, he was no outside hire: he had sat on the Partnership Board since 2021. He inherited a business with three consecutive loss years — a £78M loss before tax and exceptional items for 2022/23 against a £181M profit the year before, a £234M statutory loss, and £179M of added costs from inflation — plus two very different retailers, John Lewis and Waitrose, under one roof.

The group had already reshaped itself: John Lewis closed 16 branches and Waitrose 13, after the estate had grown from 151 locations in 2000 to 379 by 2015. Kankiwala's brief was to make what remained work harder, drawing on senior consumer and turnaround roles at PepsiCo and Burger King and as Hovis's leader. In 2023/24 the Partnership delivered £111M of productivity improvements, taking recurring savings since the 2021 transformation programme began to £420M, against a £900M long-term target.

The recovery was margin-led, not demand-led: sales rose just 1% to £12.4B. Profit before tax and exceptional items came in at £42M (statutory £56M) against the prior year's £78M loss. John Lewis department sales fell 4% to £4.8B yet trading operating profit rose £13M to £689M on stronger margins and efficiency savings; by H1 2024/25 the group's underlying loss had narrowed from £57M to £5M while Waitrose sales grew 5%.

Legacy features were rebuilt rather than preserved: Never Knowingly Undersold, retired in 2022, returned in September 2024 as a promise to match 25 major retailers with technology tracking their prices; more than 200 Partners moved into specialist roles like fashion styling, nursery advice and home appointments; digital accounted for 53% of shopping interactions. In October 2024 the Partnership announced Kankiwala would step back to a non-executive role by March 2025, with chairman Jason Tarry taking responsibility for the executive team.

£42M profit before tax and exceptional items in 2023/24 (£56M statutory) after three loss years, on sales up 1% to £12.4B, with £420M of productivity savings since 2021.

First CEO in the Partnership's history — a governance change for a staff-owned retailer, not just a leadership swap.

A margin-and-productivity turnaround achieved without sales growth (1%).

Includes the exit plan: the CEO role was always framed as a phase, dissolved back into the chairman's remit.

A turnaround doesn't need a demand surge: sales rose just 1%, yet productivity savings and rebuilt legacy features like the price promise swung a £78M loss into £42M profit.

Kankiwala always framed his tenure as one phase of the transformation: in October 2024 John Lewis said he would return to a non-executive role by March 2025, and chose not to appoint another CEO — chairman Jason Tarry took responsibility for the Executive Team as well as the Partnership Board. By then the financial picture had changed from three loss years to a £42M profit and £420M of banked productivity savings.