John Lewis to up number of shop floor staff

The new boss of British department store John Lewis, Peter Ruis, has reportedly said he is planning to up the number of staff working on the shop floor as part of efforts to increase sales at the retailer.

According to The Sunday Times, Ruis is understood to be renegotiating contracts with fashion brands in the hope of securing lower commission rates in exchange for more employees at their concessions.

The move aims to replicate the more bountiful beauty halls in John Lewis’ stores, while further reacting to John Lewis’ own research which revealed that more workers could result in a double-digit percentage increase in sales.

This in turn would reverse past efforts to scale back the number of employees on the shop floor, a decision Ruis is understood to have been actively against since his appointment to the helm retail position earlier this year.

At the time of his joining, Ruis was tasked with leading the retailer into its next phase of transformation, the strategy for which has been ongoing since early 2022.

With this, the company is hoping to achieve 400 million pounds in profit by an extended deadline of 2027/28, with a particular focus on a newly introduced “one retail mindset” introduced by president Nish Kankiwala in late 2023.