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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| John Lewis sees profits fall 26% | John Lewis sees profits fall 26% |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Department store owner John Lewis has said its profits declined last year amid "deteriorating conditions". | |
| The partnership said its underlying profits fell 26% to £279.6m, while sales rose 3% to £6.97bn. | |
| John Lewis said sales for the first five weeks of 2009 were already 1.6% lower than last year, while sales at its department stores sank 6.8%. | |
| "2009 will be another very difficult trading year," said John Lewis chairman Charlie Mayfield. | "2009 will be another very difficult trading year," said John Lewis chairman Charlie Mayfield. |
| Sales at its supermarket chain Waitrose increased 5.2% to £4bn. Waitrose launched 11 shops last year and plans to open a further 22 this year. | |
| Despite the decline in profits, John Lewis said it generated £591m of cash last year, as compared with £546.3m in 2007. | |
| Bonuses | |
| The company announced it would pay out total bonuses of £125.5m. That is the equivalent to about 13% of salary, or seven weeks' pay. | |
| "The bonus announced today is well deserved and has been hard earned by all our partners," Mr Mayfield said. | |
| In its department stores, like-for-like sales at stores that were open in the previous year dropped 3.4%. Revenue at the chain was flat at £2.81bn. | |
| John Lewis said sales in its home-related products had dropped significantly as a result of the "collapse" in the housing market. |