• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Britain’s John Lewis, Co-op lament supply chain disruptions

September 16, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 16, 2021

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) -British retailers John Lewis Partnership and the Co-operative Group both warned that creaking supply chains would lead to higher prices on Thursday, as a dearth of truck drivers compounds disruption in global freight trade.

A combination of the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union on cross-border trade and the wider effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on worldwide transportation has led many retailers to highlight the challenges facing their businesses.

Although the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership, which runs John Lewis department stores and supermarket chain Waitrose, returned to a first half profit after a pandemic hit loss last year, it warned of “significant uncertainty” ahead.

“Like the whole of retail, we are managing global supply chain challenges and labour shortages. We are seeing inflationary pressures, which we expect to persist,” the John Lewis Chairman Sharon White said.

She said the group was taking a range of measures to mitigate these risks and deliver Christmas for customers, including a campaign to recruit more drivers, the recruitment of 7,000 temporary seasonal workers and booking additional freight.

The Co-op, which runs Britain’s sixth largest supermarket group and also provides funeral and other services, reported a first half loss and warned supply chain disruption would put pressure on full year profit.

CEO Steve Murrells joined industry calls for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers to be added to the shortage occupation list so foreign workers can help plug a shortage of 90,000.

“This won’t be solved in isolation, this is a global issue where the supply chain has completely broken down,” he told Reuters.

Murrells welcomed Wednesday’s announcement that minister Michael Gove will lead the British government’s response to the crisis.

BIGGEST TEST

John Lewis made a first half profit before exceptional items of 69 million pounds ($95 million), versus a loss of 55 million pounds in the same period last year, helped by 66 million pounds of cost savings and business rates relief of 58 million pounds.

Sales rose 6% to 5.87 billion pounds, with department store sales up 12% and Waitrose’s sales up 2%.

“We have faced our biggest ever test and we will come through stronger,” said White, who set out a five-year recovery plan last October.

This involves investing 1 billion pounds to expand its online business and improve its stores, diversify beyond retail and seek more partnerships.

The plan, which is also seeking efficiency savings of 300 million pounds a year by 2022, targets profit of 400 million pounds by year five.

The Co-op made an underlying operating loss before tax of 15 million pounds ($21 million) for the 26 weeks to July 3, versus a 56 million pound profit in the same period last year.

The group has struck a partnership deal with Amazon that will allow Prime members to buy Co-op products on the Amazon site for home delivery.

The Co-op is targeting a more than doubling of online sales to 200 million pounds by the end of the year.

The group has also extended its partnership with Starship Technologies, the delivery robot company, which allows the delivery of groceries in as little as 20 minutes.

($1 = 0.7239 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Sarah Young, Guy Faulconbridge and Alexander Smith)

Source Link Britain’s John Lewis, Co-op lament supply chain disruptions

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Italy’s Draghi, China’s Xi discuss Afghanistan, G20 summit
  2. Soccer-Chievo’s got talent – club goes public for players
  3. On ‘Bitcoin Beach’ tourists and residents hail El Salvador’s adoption of cryptocurrency
  4. Tennis – Medvedev reaches third straight U.S. Open semi-final

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Newly Discovered “Bone-Digesting” Cells Help Burmese Pythons Consume Every Last Bit Of Their Prey
  • Gold Can Be Made By Scientists In A Lab – There’s Just One Problem
  • Recovery Of 24-Million-Year-Old Protein Fragments From Extinct Animal Opens “New Chapter” Of Biology
  • 6 Leading Medical Organizations Team Up To Sue RFK Jr Over COVID-19 Vaccine Policy
  • Less Ice, More Fire: Evidence Melting Glaciers Make Volcanic Eruptions More Explosive
  • This Mini Fridge-Sized Spacecraft Could Study A Time Of The Universe We’ve Never Seen Before
  • Psilocybin Shows Potential In Slowing Human Cell Aging And Increasing Lifespan In Mice
  • Blue Sharks’ Freaky Tooth-Skin Makes It Possible For Them To Change Color To Green And Even Gold
  • Summer In The Northern Hemisphere Will Be 15 Minutes Shorter Than Last Year’s
  • Your Ability To Be Funny May Not Be Inherited After All, And That’s Really Unexpected
  • New Interstellar Comet Tracked To Its Origin Region: “It’s Much Older Than The Solar System”
  • ChatGPT Gets “Absolutely Wrecked” By An Atari Video Chess Game Built In 1979
  • Tick Bites Are Nearing Record Highs In Some US States – Why Is This Season So Bad?
  • Rivals Wanted To Erase This Great Female Pharaoh From History, But Is That The Whole Story?
  • Neanderthals Repurposed Cave Lion Bones Into “Multifunctional Tools” 130,000 Years Ago
  • Jumping Spiders: With Cute Eyes And Complex Behavior, They’re Nature’s Most Charismatic Arachnids
  • Scientists Dropped A Cow Carcass 1,629 Meters Into The South China Sea – And 8 Unexpected Visitors Turned Up
  • A Colossal Moa: One Of The Biggest Birds Ever To Walk The Earth Becomes 5th “De-Extinction” Species
  • Aliens Up To 200 Light-Years Away Could Find Earth Thanks To Our Airports
  • For The First Time, Wild Rays Have Been Filmed Telling Sharks To “Back Off!” With Electric Shocks
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version