The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose cut 3,500 jobs last year amid efforts to save costs in a tough market – but employed its first group chief executive on a more than £1m pay deal.
The staff-owned group, which has 34 John Lewis department stores and 329 Waitrose supermarkets, said it employed 72,900 people in its annual report published on Thursday, down from 76,400 a year before, helping to reduce its pay bill to £1.79bn from £1.82bn.
