John Lewis (department store)
John Lewis logo
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Genre | Department Store |
| Founded | 1864 |
| Founder | John Lewis |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
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Key people
|
Paula Nickolds, Managing Director John Lewis & John Spedan Lewis |
| Revenue |
 £ 4.060 billion (2013) |
|
£ 940 million (2013) |
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| Owner | John Lewis Partnership |
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Number of employees
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38,100 |
| Website | www |
John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department stores operating throughout the United Kingdom. The chain is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which was created alongside the first store in the mid-1800s. The first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street, London. The chain's slogan is "Never Knowingly Undersold" which has been in use since 1925.
There are 46 stores throughout England, Scotland and Wales, including 12 "At Home" stores, and "flexible format" stores in Exeter and York. The first John Lewis concession opened in New South Wales, Australia in November 2016.
On 1 January 2008, the Oxford Street store was awarded a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen as: "suppliers of haberdashery and household goods". John Lewis Reading is also the holder of a Royal Warrant from the Queen in 2007 as suppliers of household and fancy goods.
The John Lewis Christmas advert was first launched in 2007 and it has since become something of an annual tradition in British culture, and one of the signals that the countdown to Christmas has begun in the UK.
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 1933 the partnership purchased its first store outside London, the long established Jessop & Son in Nottingham. Jessops only rebranded itself as John Lewis on 27 October 2002. In 1940 the partnership bought Selfridge Provincial Stores. This group of fifteen suburban and provincial department stores included: Knight & Lee, Southsea; Cole Brothers, Sheffield; George Henry Lee, Liverpool; Robert Sayle, Cambridge; and Trewins, Watford; all of which continue to trade today but, except Knight & Lee, are now re-branded as John Lewis. Caley's, Windsor was also included but closed in 2006.
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Wikipedia