John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned retailer, has come under fire from its former chairman Sir Stuart Hampson over the possible sale of a stake to an outside investor. Hampson, who was appointed chairman in 1993, has branded the move as “highly undesirable”, claiming it could kill off the “spirit” of the retailer’s partnership model.
John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned retailer, has come under fire from its former chairman Sir Stuart Hampson over the possible sale of a stake to an outside investor. Hampson, who was appointed chairman in 1993, has branded the move as “highly undesirable”, claiming it could kill off the “spirit” of the retailer’s partnership model.
The proposal, which has been launched to raise as much as £2 billion, would mark the first time in the company's 159-year history that it would no longer operate under its 100% employee-owned business model. Speaking to The Sunday Times, Hampson said that John Lewis is a “different kind of business”, where services are better due to the person behind the counter being the owner.
“Once you sell a share of the partnership to somebody, they can sell it to somebody else… it would be highly undesirable,” he said. Hampson added that bringing in an external shareholder will result in “everybody contributing their ideas and enthusiasm to pay off profits towards a third party.”
John Lewis Partnership has recently announced it is in the early stages of exploring the sale of a minority stake in the business. However, the company has said that nothing is happening in the short term, despite reviewing the future funding needs of its partnership. This comes as the newly appointed CEO of John Lewis, Nish Kankiwala, recently told staff that the partnership must reform its business model “at pace”.
Kankiwala, the former CEO of Hovis, was brought into the newly created position of CEO last month to help the retailer “thrive for another century” after it recently reported losses of £78 million.
The move has been met with criticism from other industry experts, with former John Lewis chairman Sir Stuart Hampson being the most vocal. Hampson believes that selling a stake to an outside investor would be “very inappropriate” and would kill off the “spirit” of the retailer’s partnership model. He added that bringing in an external shareholder will result in “everybody contributing their
Sources: https://internetretailing.net/ex-john-lewis-chairman/
