Restructure | John Lewis slashes third of senior roles

With the threat of Brexit looming over the British economy and the ever-growing shift to online e-commerce, brands once considered giants of the UK high street are announcing more drastic measures to stay afloat in a volatile sector.

In March, high street mainstay John Lewis Partnership, whose roots in retail go as far back as 1864, confirmed that it would slash its once-championed employee bonus scheme for its 83,000 retail workers after a recent profits slump and a poor Christmas retail period that left the chain in a state of emergency. Now, the company has confirmed that at least one third of its senior management jobs will be axed with a new structure being implemented in February 2020.

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As part of the move, the company will merge the management of its two key brands, John Lewis and the Waitrose grocery chain, into one singular team in an effort to claw back £100million through the loss of around 75 members of its current 225-strong senior team.

"These changes will be difficult for some of our partners and we will implement as carefully and sensitively as we can,” John Lewis Chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield told the BBC, although it was also stated that there would be “little to no disruption to customers”.