The public limited company[3][4] is owned by a trust[4] on behalf of all its employees, known as Partners, who share the responsibilities and rewards of ownership.

He came to London in 1856 and worked as a salesman for Peter Robinson, an Oxford Street draper, rising to be his silk buyer.

In 1864, he declined Robinson's offer of a partnership, and rented his own premises on the north side of Oxford Street, on part of the site now occupied by the department store which bears his name.

His skill lay in sourcing the goods he sold, and most mornings he would go to the City of London, accompanied by a man with a hand barrow.

After Westminster School, both sons joined Lewis in the business, and he gave each of them a quarter share of it on their twenty-first birthdays.

[12] In 1906, Lewis bought a controlling interest in the Sloane Square-based business Peter Jones Limited, the eponymous founder of which had died the previous year.

This gave Spedan Lewis complete control, and he decided that the underlying problem was that the staff had no incentive to do a good day's work because their own interests were not in line with those of the business.

He shortened their working day and instituted a system of commission for each department, paying selling staff amounts based on turnover.

[10] Spedan Lewis's radical idea was that the profits generated by the business should not be paid solely to shareholders as a reward for their capital.

Trade at Oxford Street had fared better, and John Lewis made a cash injection into the Sloane Square business.

Intended mainly as a control on sourcing merchandise, it also meant that customers could shop knowing that they were not paying more at Peter Jones than they could buy identical goods for at other stores.

[13] This principle, which was refined several times, most notably to exclude retailers who trade only online and to include extended insurance and delivery charges when comparing prices,[14] was honoured until August 2022, when it was replaced with a general commitment to providing competitive value on their own-label merchandise.

The profits of the combined business would be distributed to its employees, either as cash or as fixed-interest stock in the new company: John Lewis Partnership Limited.

[17] The biggest acquisition came in 1940 when JLP paid £30,000 for Selfridge Provincial Stores Limited, which owned 16 shops: John Barnes in Hampstead, Blinkhorn & Son in Gloucester and Stroud, Bon Marché in Brixton, Buckleys in Harrogate, A H Bull in Reading, Caleys in Windsor, Cole Brothers in Sheffield, Holdrons in Peckham, Jones Brothers in Holloway, George Henry Lee in Liverpool, Pratts in Streatham, Quin & Axten in Brixton, Robert Sayle in Cambridge, Thomsons in Peterborough and Trewin Brothers in Watford, substantially increasing the size of the business.

[19] In 1950, Spedan Lewis executed a second deed of settlement, which passed ownership of JLP to trustees to hold for the benefit of those who worked in the business.

The rebuilt store on Oxford Street was reopened in 1960, and the sculpture Winged Figure by Barbara Hepworth was added in 1963.

[21] To accommodate national advertising, in 2002, the company began the process of renaming department stores not branded as John Lewis (Tyrrell & Green, Heelas, etc.)

[26][27] In March 2023, a chief executive was hired for the first time,[28] making Nish Kankiwala responsible for day-to-day operations of the partnership as delegated by the chairman.

[27] However, this role was eliminated in October 2024 by new chairman Jason Tarry, with Kankiwala due to complete his two-year contract and step down in March 2025.

The bonus is dependent on the profitability of JLP each year, varying historically between 5% and 20% of Partners' annual salaries, but falling to 3% in 2019 in light of tough trading conditions.

[35] In 1999, in response to a fall in profits, there were calls from some employees for the business to undertake an initial public offering and float on the stock market.

The flagship Oxford Street store in London remains the largest John Lewis outlet in the UK.

[41] Waitrose trades mainly in London and the south of England, and was originally formed by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose, and David Taylor.

[53] In October 2021, John Lewis Finance released a home insurance advertisement showing a boy in make-up and a dress vandalising his house.

The advertisement was banned by the Financial Conduct Authority as misleading, because the insurance plan did not include deliberate damage, as portrayed.

Herbert Parkinson currently produces John Lewis own-brand fabrics and curtains as well as filled furnishing products such as cushions and pillows.

[56] Until September 2007, the Partnership also owned two further textile production businesses: Carlisle-based printer Stead McAlpin (founded c. 1875, 200 workers) and Haslingden, Lancashire-based weaver J. H.