Former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield has thrown his assist behind his successor following a tumultuous few days for the retail big.
Sir Charlie, who stood down from the position in 2000, instructed Sky News he was assured his alternative Dame Sharon White had been “doing her best in pretty difficult circumstances”.
It comes after John Lewis Partnership, which incorporates Waitrose and John Lewis outlets, final week posted an annual lack of £234m and warned an unspecified variety of job cuts have been on the playing cards.
The firm can be contemplating plans to dilute its 100% worker possession to boost as much as £2bn of recent funding, based on experiences.
In an interview with Ian King Live, Sir Charlie stated “a lot has happened and a lot has changed” since he left the corporate, together with the pandemic and the price of dwelling disaster.
But he added: “I’m absolutely sure that my successor is doing the very best with her team to manage that situation in pretty difficult circumstances.”
However Sir Charlie refused to be drawn on solutions that the partnership may need to usher in an exterior investor, including: “I’m not privy to any of these conversations”.
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It comes after Dame Sharon introduced plans in December to diversify its enterprise by constructing 1,000 rental properties on its land, in a three way partnership with funding agency abrdn.
Source: information.sky.com”