John Lewis Brings Back Former Fashion Boss Peter Ruis to Lead Chain

John Lewis is bringing again its former trend boss Peter Ruis to steer the division retailer chain – after greater than a decade working retailers together with Jigsaw and Anthropologie – in its newest effort to show across the enterprise.

The appointment of an skilled retailer, with 30 years within the business together with stints at Marks & Spencer, Ted Baker and Levi’s earlier than becoming a member of John Lewis, and most just lately as chief govt of Canada’s Indigo books and homewares chain, comes amid falling gross sales and earnings on the division retailer.

Ruis, who labored at John Lewis between 2005 and 2013, will begin subsequent week, changing Naomi Simcock, who has been interim boss because the abrupt exit of Pippa Wicks nearly a yr in the past. Simcock will take up a brand new position as operations director for the chain.

Ruis could have a protracted to-do record when he returns to the enterprise, which calls its workers companions as they’re co-owners. The division retailer has struggled amid improved competitors from Marks & Spencer, particularly on-line, and the excessive price of working its massive shops as footfall on excessive streets has but to completely get well because the pandemic lockdowns.

Wicks was accountable for initiatives together with changing John Lewis’s century-old price-matching pledge, which had weighed closely on profitability, in addition to parting methods with the company accountable for its well-known Christmas campaigns for greater than a decade. She additionally launched its low-cost Anyday vary. Nevertheless, gross sales continued to say no and the new company’s Christmas advert was not seen as a serious change of course.

Ruis stated: “It’s an incredible privilege to return to the John Lewis Partnership after 10 years. The John Lewis model is iconic, cherished and trusted by hundreds of thousands of shoppers throughout the UK and I’m excited to steer the subsequent part of the transformation. As the largest employee-owned enterprise within the UK, we’ve got an enormous alternative to make much more of the distinctive associate distinction to offer distinctive merchandise and repair for our prospects.”

Nish Kankiwala, the previous Hovis boss who’s chief govt of John Lewis Partnership, which owns the division retailer chain and Waitrose, stated Ruis would deliver with him “a deep understanding of shoppers, manufacturers and product from his 30-year profession spanning quite a lot of main excessive road and on-line retailers”.

“He additionally brings a transparent and confirmed ardour for the John Lewis model and the partnership mannequin, and I’ve little question he will probably be integral to our future success,” Kankiwala stated.

Ruis’s appointment comes amid criticism of a scarcity of retail expertise on the prime of the John Lewis Partnership because the arrival of its chair, the previous Ofcom boss Dame Sharon White, in early 2020.

White has overseen a restructure, together with job cuts and retailer closures, serving to the enterprise slash its money owed, but in addition poor retail efficiency amid elevated emphasis on non-retail ventures together with monetary companies and constructing properties to hire. She is attributable to step down in February subsequent yr.

By Sarah Butler

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