What John Lewis’s turnaround says about the British high street

Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskJohn Lewis’s cuddly version of capitalism, conceived in 1928 by John Spedan Lewis as an antidote to rising communist sentiment, used to be similarly feted. In 2012 it was touted by Sir Nick Clegg, then deputy prime minister, as a model for the British economy.

Most painful was the decision permanently to shut a third of John Lewis’s 50 physical stores, from Ashford and Aberdeen to Tamworth and Tunbridge Wells. That reduced costs, and has been vindicated by Brits’ increasing fondness for shopping online. Despite the closures and weeks of covid-induced lockdowns, the chain posted record sales of £4.9bn in 2021.

The launch of a parallel “Anyday” range at John Lewis has similar goals. They seem to be being met: last year, of the 2m people who bought Anyday products, a quarter were new or “reactivated” customers. Meanwhile, the share of younger customers is ticking up. Kantar, a research firm, says that 40% of John Lewis’s sales were to under-45s in the year to March 2022, compared with 37% the year before.

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