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John Lewis Partnership

The corporate John Lewis Partnership logo
Type	Limited Company, with profits held in trust for Employees.
Industry	Retail
Founded	Oxford Street, London (1929)
Founder	John Spedan Lewis
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Key people	Sir Charlie Mayfield (Chairman)
Products	Clothing, watches and jewellery, giftwares, cosmetics, housewares, furniture, beds and bedding, audio-visual, computing, photography, food, direct services, financial services
Revenue	£11 billion (2015)
Net income	£409.6 million (2012–13)
Number of employees	88,900 (2016)
Subsidiaries	Waitrose John Lewis
Website	www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk

The John Lewis Partnership PLC (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees — known as Partners – who have a say in the running of the business, and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. The JLP group is the third largest UK company by sales in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2016. The chain's image is upmarket appealing strongly to middle and upper-class shoppers. Recently, John Lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the Value range to John Lewis and the Essential range to Waitrose, and the expansion of the business.

JLP also supplies the Ocado web supermarket with Waitrose own-brand foods and John Lewis own-brand non-food items.

John Lewis opened a drapery shop at 132 Oxford Street, London in 1864. Born in Shepton Mallet in Somerset in 1836, he had been apprenticed at 14 to a linen draper in Wells. He came to London in 1856 and worked as a salesman for Peter Robinson, an Oxford Street draper, rising to be his silk buyer. In 1864, he turned down Robinson's offer of a partnership, and rented his own premises on the north side of Oxford Street, on part of the site now occupied by the department store which bears his name. There he sold silk and woollen cloth and haberdashery. His retailing philosophy was to buy good quality merchandise and sell it at a modest 'mark up'. Although he carried a wide range of merchandise, he didn’t bother much about displaying it, and never advertised. His skill lay in sourcing the goods he sold, and most mornings he would go to the City, accompanied by a man with a hand barrow. Later he would make trips to Paris to buy silks.