John Lewis staff get 15% bonus after profits boost (From Surrey Comet)

John Lewis staff get 15% bonus after profits boost

3:10pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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Cheers greeted the news John Lewis staff will receive a 15 per cent bonus this year, after the retailer finished the year strongly, recovering from a large drop in sales in the first half of 2009.

Expectant staff at the Kingston store heard about their bonus, equivalent to eight weeks’ salary and an increase on last year’s 13 per cent figure, on Thursday, March 11 The news came as the company posted a 9.7 per cent increase in profits before tax and bonuses.

Overall sales at the Kingston store were down 2 per cent last year, which the store attributed to customers being careful with money at the start of the year, as the recession started to take hold.

Andrew Layton, operations manager at John Lewis, Kingston, said: “In Kingston, sales were a game of two halves. In the first half we had a really difficult time and finished down 9 per cent, but in the second half it came back very strong for us and ended up 5 per cent.

“It was a fantastic Christmas. In the five weeks across Christmas our trade was up 10 per cent which was a very strong Christmas for us, and we had a record clearance week.”