John Lewis boss Pippa Wicks makes shock departure 

John Lewis’s woes mounted yesterday as it announced that its boss is leaving after just three years.

In the shock announcement, the department store owner said executive director Pippa Wicks was going ‘with immediate effect’.

The 61-year-old, who shut 16 loss-making outlets during the pandemic and axed the ‘never knowingly undersold’ price pledge that had been in place since 1925, has been replaced by retail director Naomi Simcock on an interim basis. 

Exit: John Lewis executive director Pippa Wicks joined as head of the department store business in 2020 and oversaw the ditching of the ‘never knowingly undersold’ pledge

Wicks’s departure raises fresh questions over how John Lewis is performing in the face of rising costs and pressure on family finances.

Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, which owns the department store chain and Waitrose supermarkets, said she was ‘very grateful for [Wicks’s] contribution’ to the company.

The partnership racked up losses of £99million in the first half of the financial year, which covered the six months to the end of July.

Cost pressures weighed heavily on its bottom line while shoppers reined in spending in the face of high energy and grocery bills. 

Speaking in the autumn, White said the business ‘faced unprecedented cost inflation across grocery and general merchandise’.

‘No one could have predicted the scale of the cost of living crisis that has materialised, with energy prices and inflation rising ahead of anyone’s expectations,’ she said.

Wicks joined as head of the department store business in 2020 and oversaw the ditching of the ‘never knowingly undersold’ pledge and launch of a new ‘for all life’s moments’ strapline in its place.

She also launched a value range called ‘Anyday’ offering less pricey products.

Wicks, who was previously deputy chief executive at the Co-operative Group, was praised by White as ‘instrumental in reinvigorating the brand’.

‘Under Pippa’s stewardship John Lewis has reported record sales and was recently recognised as the UK’s best retail brand for customer service,’ said White.

At its first-half results, JLP bosses warned that the annual staff bonus was hanging in the balance owing to a ‘uniquely uncertain’ outlook in the lead up to Christmas.

White said the retailer would ‘need a substantial strengthening of performance, beyond what we usually achieve in the second half, to generate sufficient profit to share a partnership bonus with partners’.

Wicks said: ‘I am proud of the considerable trans- formational progress the highly talented John Lewis team has made over the past few years, especially given the difficulties caused by the pandemic.’

Simcock will take over on an interim basis and ‘lead the delivery of the 2023 plan and priorities for the brand’. The retailer was tight-lipped as to when it would appoint a permanent successor.