John Lewis Partnership has missed its profit targets during the golden quarter as both John Lewis and Waitrose missed sales targets.
The partnership said its lower than expected sales during the month up to 21 December, were due to ‘lower consumer confidence and weaker than expected market confidence.
The Telegraph reported that in an internal document to staff, the partnership said “Both John Lewis and Waitrose missed their sales targets.” It also said that the business has outperformed its competitors and that staff should be “proud of our performance”.
John Lewis has a target of reaching £131m in profit for the full year (2024-25) and revealed last year (2023-24) that it was in the black for the first time in three years, posting a pre-tax profit of £56m, from a £234m loss the year before (2022-23).
A John Lewis spokesperson said: “As we said in September, we remain on track to deliver full-year pre-exceptional profits significantly above the £42m we reported in 2023-24 and we will update on our performance at our results in March.”