Pro IQRA News Updates. 
It was reported that the John Lewis Partnership is exploring a plan to change its employee-owned model as a way to attract investment.
The retail giant — which operates the supermarket chain and supermarket arm of Waitrose — warned last week of potential job cuts as it told employees it would not give a bonus for only the second time since 1953 after a huge loss.
The Sunday Times said it understands chairman Dame Sharon White is in the early stages of exploring a plan to change its joint structure in a bid to raise between £1 and £2 billion in new investment.
The newspaper reported that selling a minority interest could require a change to John Lewis’ constitution, which must be voted on by the Partnership Council, a group of about 60 employees.
The Sunday Times said any money raised through the sale of shares would go into the business, not the pockets of employees.
The company was born when John Lewis opened a small ready-to-wear shop on London’s Oxford Street in 1864.
Hey, son, John Spedan Lewis created the partnership more than 70 years ago as an experiment for a better way to do business by involving employees in decision-making, says the company’s website.
John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s largest employee-owned company with its retail brands – John Lewis and Waitrose – owned in trust by 80,000 partners.
It has 34 John Lewis stores plus one outlet and 332 Waitrose stores across the UK, along with its own retail locations.
Ms. Sharon, in a letter to employees last week, warned of job cuts as part of efforts to “become more efficient and productive”.
The group recorded a loss of £78m before extraordinary items for the year ending 28 January.
It marked a downturn from profits of £181m the previous year, which John Lewis blamed on “inflationary pressures”.
JLP recorded a pre-tax loss of £234m once additional costs such as large value write-downs on retail properties were taken into account.
The update came a day after the turnaround specialist group appointed Nish Kankiwala as its first CEO, in a change to the leadership structure.
Mr. Kankiwala will take over on 27 March and will report to Ms. Sharon.
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