John Lewis is a chain of department stores operating throughout Great Britain and is popular amongst the middle class for its high quality goods. The chain is owned by the John Lewis Partnership. All permanent employees are partners in the business. There are currently 28 stores throughout England and Scotland and a further 8 stores are confirmed to open in the next 5 years. The brand is known for its slogan "Never Knowingly Undersold" which has been in use for 76 years. In 2007 John Lewis was voted Britain's Favourite Department Store.John Lewis opened its first store in Wales on 22 September 2009 in Cardiff. It is connected to the recently expanded St. David's Centre, one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom. John Lewis Cardiff is the largest John Lewis department store in the UK, outside of London..On 1 January 2008, John Lewis Oxford Street was awarded a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen as suppliers of haberdashery and household goods. The John Lewis shop in Reading, Berkshire also has a Royal Warrant from the Queen as suppliers of household and fancy goods, received on 1 January 2007.

Several John Lewis stores are iconic architectural buildings, often with listed building status. These include the flagship store on Oxford Street, London, with its Barbara Hepworth statue Winged Figure, on the corner with Holles Street, and the Peter Jones department store at the corner of Sloane Square and Kings Road, Chelsea, London. The largest store outside of London opened in Cardiff in September 2009.

Some of the earlier smaller branches have now been closed, such as Caley's in Windsor, which shut its doors in July 2006.

History

The flagship store on Oxford Street began as a drapery shop, opened by John Lewis in 1864. In 1905 Lewis acquired a second store, Peter Jones in Sloane Square, London. His son, John Spedan Lewis, founded the John Lewis Partnership in 1920 after thinking up the idea during his days in charge of Peter Jones. John Spedan Lewis also thought up the idea of the Gazette, the partnership's in-house magazine, first published in 1918.

In 1940 the partnership bought Selfridge Provincial Stores. This group of fifteen suburban and provincial department stores included Cole Brothers, Sheffield, and George Henry Lee, Liverpool, which continue to trade today, now re-branded as John Lewis. In 1953 the partnership bought Herbert Parkinson, a textile manufacturer, a business which still makes all the duvets, pillows and furnishings for John Lewis.

The department stores today

The original Oxford Street shop is still the flagship and largest branch in the partnership. A complete refurbishment of the building was completed in late 2007 at a cost of £60 million. The project has made the shop one unified space, with the creation of two glass-roofed atriums, a brand new 'Place To Eat' restaurant and, for the first time, the inclusion of a brasserie and bistro in the store. A 'John Lewis Food Hall from Waitrose' opened in the shop's basement in October 2007.

The John Lewis Food Hall from Waitrose is a new concept for the John Lewis Partnership. The food hall combines elements of the Waitrose format alongside new innovations such as a Cheese Room and florist which are unique to the department store. A second Food Hall opened at John Lewis Bluewater on the 6th August 2009.

The refurbishment of the Oxford Street flagship follows on from substantial investment made in other shops across the group over recent years. This has included the renovation of Peter Jones at a cost of £107 million, completed in 2004.

As a large and successful retailer, John Lewis has increasingly been seen by both planners and developers as the central magnet which can make or break a shopping development.The announcement of an anchor tenant such as John Lewis contributes to the certainty of developers' proposals, and so attracts other retailers to the area.For example the announcement of the 1998 department store move from Bristol city centre to near the M4-M5 junction at Cribbs Causeway drew some retailers to move from the traditional Broadmead shopping area, and encouraged further construction in the neighbourhood of the new mall – a move criticised in some quarters because of poor public transport links from Bristol. In contrast, the 2006 reconstruction of the former Robert Sayle was the core of the major Grand Arcade project in the middle of Cambridge.

Many stores acquired by the partnership retained their original names for several years, including Trewins in Watford, and Bainbridge's in Newcastle. All have now been rebranded John Lewis, with the exception of Peter Jones and Knight & Lee in Southsea.

Before the relaxation of UK Sunday trading laws, John Lewis stores were well known for closing on Mondays to allow staff a full two day "weekend".

The John Lewis Partnership were the first department store group in the UK to adopt central buying, launching the 'Jonell(e)' name for own brand merchandise in 1937. That brand name has gradually been replaced with the 'John Lewis' name since 2001. Additional own brands include 'JFW', 'Guise' and 'JL' for clothing. A selection of Waitrose own brand products, such as cleaning materials and party stationery, are also available from John Lewis. Famous brands such as Crew Clothing, Polo Golf, Mulberry, Fat Face, Sony and Apple Inc. are stocked by the group.

Most stores feature a 'Place To Eat' self-service restaurant, offering a range of counters. Some newer stores including Solihull and Southampton feature a John Lewis Cafe, aiming to attract customers who may visit an in-mall coffee shop. 'The Brasserie' has recently brought table service back to the shops with a more sophisticated menu and decor.

The High Wycombe store is the only branch not to have clothing departments (apart from sports clothing), hence the shop's name 'John Lewis Home & Leisure'. John Lewis products are also in 'Waitrose Food & Home' stores (eg in Salisbury). In 2007 a 'John Lewis Home Outlet' opened at McArthurGlen's Swindon Designer Outlet centre, the first 'outlet store' of the company.

Recent developments

In 2008 a controversy over the declaration of expenses by UK Members of Parliament revealed that Parliamentary authorities were using information from John Lewis - the 'John Lewis list' - as a guide to the maximum costs refundable to MPs when equipping London pieds à terre at public expense.

On 6 November 2008, it was announced that John Lewis would open their first department store outside the UK in Dublin, Ireland. Subject to planning permission, the shop will be a key part the Dublin central development in historic O’Connell Street. The centre is being developed by Chartered Land and will be part of the largest retail centre in Ireland, regenerating of the city centre. The €1.2 billion development is due to open in 2013.

The Cardiff store opened in September 2009 as part of the St David's Centre — Phase 2 development, and is the largest John Lewis department store in the UK outside of London. The Cardiff branch is also the Partnership's only department store in Wales.

Expansion

Stratford will open in 2011 together with a new Waitrose supermarket. The new shops will anchor the Westfield Stratford City development alongside the Olympic Park in East London.

The group announced in March 2009 that all other planned openings were to be postponed due to difficult trading conditions resulting from the credit crunch and the cancellation or postponement of projects by its development partners. [John Lewis sees profits fall 26%] Delayed projects include a 260,000 sq ft store in Leeds at the Eastgate Quarters development, a store at the Tithebarn development in Preston, one at the Westgate Centre in Oxford, and one in the redeveloped town centre in Crawley, as well as relocations of the stores in Portsmouth and Sheffield. Before the crunch John Lewis declared an interest in establishing a department store in Bromley.

In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and ten miles (16 km) from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of the new store scheduled for 2008. This decision was disputed, however, and taken to the High Court where it was reversed.

A flagship store is to open at the former Courts site at the Commerce Centre retail park in Poole, Dorset. The flagship store will herald a new store format and will be called John Lewis At Home and will be one third the size of a traditional John Lewis department store. It is hoped that the store format will be rolled out following the success of the Poole site.

References

External links

• Official site