Revolutionary Ideas

It wasn’t long before Spedan became uneasy that he, his brother and his father were receiving more income from the family business than all their employees put together. After a riding accident forced him to have two operations and a long period of recovery, he thought deeply about his own future and that of the business. He was eager to share his profits with his staff and to redistribute money which was being kept in reserve.

In order to do this, Spedan decided he would have to make the business into a limited liability company, distributing the profits to the employees in the form of shares in proportion to their pay. His father’s reaction to this suggestion – and to his inevitable smaller share of the retained profits – was somewhat negative.

The Experiment

It was in 1914 that John Lewis Senior handed over the entire managerial control of the Peter Jones shop to Spedan, who became the shop’s chairman and its nominal managing director. He was then free to start putting his forward-thinking ideas into practice. However, his father made him continue to work until 5pm at the Oxford Street shop, and the Peter Jones business was doing badly.

Spedan’s first move was to shorten the working day by an hour and to start a departmental system of commission. He also set up the staff committees in which elected representatives held regular meetings with him in the absence of their managers. This system is still in operation.

Spedan had a serious disagreement with his father in 1916 that was to shape the future of the John Lewis Partnership. He withdrew from active participation in the Oxford Street shop and swapped his quarter-share of the business for his father’s controlling holding in the capital of Peter Jones Limited.

Over the next few years he made further changes at Peter Jones, giving the staff a third week’s holiday, taking on unusually well educated people for management posts, and starting The Gazette (our internal news publication which is still published in the Partnership today).

In 1919 he set up a staff council (the forerunner of today’s Partnership, Divisional and Branch Councils). His employee-ownership and democratic business model ideas were starting to flourish and Peter Jones was commercially, all the better for it.

Family & Business

Spedan Lewis married Sarah Beatrice Mary Hunter in 1923. She was one of five women graduates recruited as buyers the previous year and became deputy chairman of the Partnership after their marriage. They had three children: John, who sadly died as a child, Jill (1927-68) and Edward (1929-2008).

Spedan’s mother died in 1924 and the long disagreement between him and his father was made up. In 1926, Oswald gave his brother his share in the Oxford Street shop, and control of both stores passed to Spedan, although his father was still very much involved with the day-to-day running of the business. Spedan immediately started to apply his ‘Partnership’ ideals to the Oxford Street shop as well, and bought the Odney Club at Cookham, Berkshire, in the same year (one of 5 Partnership hotels that we still enjoy today).

John Lewis Senior died in 1928, aged 92, leaving Spedan sole owner of both stores. He expanded his shop still further down Oxford Street. He also converted the John Lewis firm into a public company – John Lewis and Company Limited – creating capital for expansion.

The Partnership is Born

On 18 April 1929 Spedan Lewis signed the First Trust Settlement, transferring his own shares in John Lewis Ltd, Peter Jones Ltd and the Odney Estate to a board of trustees on behalf of the Partners. He also created the John Lewis Partnership Limited.

In return he would receive bonds worth £1 million over the following 30 years. He retained complete practical control but took no more income from the business.

Twenty-one years later, on 26 April 1950, Spedan signed the Second Trust Settlement, effectively ‘giving’ the Partnership to the people who work in it. By this act he transferred all his remaining shares and his ultimate control to the trustees. The John Lewis Partnership expanded during the remainder of the 20th century into the business we know today.

Waitrose Joins the Partnership

The Partnership bought Waitrose Ltd in October 1937. At the time it was a London-based family business with 10 grocery and provisions shops employing 164 staff. Wallace Wyndham Waite, who had opened his first shop with Arthur Rose and David Taylor in 1904, was still in charge.

The three men had started trading in Acton, west London. Their original shop soon expanded, and reopened in much larger premises in 1908, selling everything from fish to flowers. By 1920 there were more than 20 Waitrose shops throughout London and the Home Counties, but many shops had closed by 1930 after a decade of more difficult trading conditions.

The Partnership was attracted to Waitrose, said Spedan Lewis, by its ‘high reputation not only for the quality of its goods but also for the way in which it has been built up… It is no secret that many provision shops… have owed a good deal of their success to the bribing of servants of their customers. Messrs Waitrose Limited have never used any such methods.’

We All Own It

From a small drapers shop on Oxford Street to truly revolutionary ideas, the John Lewis Partnership today stands as a profound testament to the foresight of Spedan Lewis and his belief that a better way of doing business could be found. One that benefits its Partners, customers, suppliers and the world as a whole.

In an ever-changing 21st-century retail landscape, this enduring model of ownership remains our deepest strength. It is a structure where every individual is a Partner, with a shared stake in the collective future. This spirit, forged through a history of overcoming challenges, ensures that the Partnership, gifted by its founder to the people who work in it, remains strong, resilient, and ready to face the future and is anchored in unwavering conviction of our unique purpose – Working in Partnership for a Happier World.

The investment in our store portfolio will focus on the areas that differentiate us, including:

• Upgrading service counters: At a time when many food retailers are removing theirs, meat and fish counters have been given a new look and upgraded.
• Award-winning wine selection given greater prominence: Finchley Road is the  first Waitrose to feature an entirely chilled department for white wine, champagne, rose and beer.
• Greater flexibility to respond to local demand: Finchley Road has given more space to top sellers including adding a second dry aged beef cabinet and dedicated parmesan section – 12% of Waitrose parmigiano counter sales come from the one store.
• More third party collaboration: A new and exclusive partnership with Crosstown doughnuts has been introduced as part of a refreshed bakery and we have expanded our concession with Sushi Daily to include a Hot Wok offer of ready-to-eat dishes.
• More dedicated space for on demand grocery orders:  The store becomes the first Waitrose shop to feature a hatch to allow riders to make collections outside of the store’s opening hours. It is also the first UK supermarket to have a dedicated internal space for on-demand grocery collections due to the increased popularity of orders through Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

The first new Waitrose store in six years will open in Hampton Hill later this year, subject to planning approval, with a second following in Greater London which will open early in the new year. The convenience store will trigger one of our biggest periods of expansion as we look to reach more customers having served a record 15 million last year.

“Waitrose will always offer fantastic food, but the groundwork we have undertaken behind the scenes in recent years means we can now focus on growth through new shops and ensuring our existing ones are providing great shopping experiences that match the quality of our products. 

“The transformation of our Finchley Road store marks the next evolution of our journey to create a great shopping experience for our customers, underpinned by a high-quality product offering tailored to the local area, and the quality service we are synonymous with. In designing the store, we have taken time to understand how our customers like to shop, and used this knowledge to introduce new concepts that will be tested and rolled out nationally as we continue to work towards the Waitrose of the future.”

James Bailey, Executive Director for Waitrose

“Our investment in our Waitrose store portfolio is already yielding strong results, with customers responding positively. As our retail driven plan continues to gain traction, our growing number of shoppers and increasing customer satisfaction scores are clear indicators of its success. This is a result of our unrelenting focus on improving the customer experience of our retail businesses, taking the love that exists for both brands and making sure customers are rewarded with better shops, the highest quality products, and the best service.”

Nish Kankiwala, Chief Executive Officer of the John Lewis Partnership

Waitrose has also continued to significantly invest in value and innovation this year to help attract and excite customers. We have invested millions of pounds in lowering hundreds of prices while refusing to compromise on the quality and animal welfare that sets us apart. We have relaunched our premium No.1 range, agreed exclusive partnerships with Yotam Ottolenghi and ZOE’s Daily30+, and acquired the restaurant-quality meal-kit delivery service, Dishpatch.

The latest Kantar figures reported last week show customers are responding to the investment in our offering, Waitrose recorded our strongest growth since November 2023 and is continuing to gain market share after July’s figures showed an increase for the first time since January 2022. We were also named top food retailer by the Institute of Customer Service last month.