John Lewis on track to deliver 'significantly' improved profits

The department store chain, which also owns upmarket grocer Waitrose, said total revenues rose 2% in the 26 weeks to 27 July to £5.2bn.

John Lewis sales slipped 3% to £2bn, in what the group called a "challenging" market. Waitrose performed well, however, with sales up 5% and average item price up just over 2%.

That helped cut losses before tax and exceptional items to just £5m from £57m a year previous.

Pre-tax losses narrowed to £30m from £59m.

Looking ahead, JLP said: "It has a been half of strong progress in our transformation.

"We have historically delivered the majority of our profits in the second half. Despite the environment for our customers remaining uncertain, we expect to maintain financial momentum from the consistent delivery of our multi-year transformation.

"As a result, we are confident that full-year pre-exceptional profits should be significantly above the £42m we reported in 2023/24."

JLP has been hit hard in recent years, by both the pandemic and longer-term trends, including the boom in online shopping.

After plunging into the red, it suspended its annual partnership bonus and launched a major overhaul, including shutting under-performing stores and axing jobs. The staff-owned retailer employs around 70,000 people, who are known as partners.

Nish Kankiwala, chief executive, said: "I want to thank our partners for their hard work during the half.

"These results confirm that our transformation plan is working and we expect profits to grow significantly for the full year."