Bonuses axed and jobs at risk as £234m loss hits John Lewis

FOR decades John Lewis and its grocery chain Waitrose have been the go-to place for the middle classes - but today the group, famed for its Christmas adverts, revealed just how badly it has been hit by the cost-of-living crisis.

- Simon English

Tough competition from a revitalised Marks & Spencer and from Ikea and budget supermarkets have piled on the pressure. The John Lewis Partnership plunged to a loss of £234 million for the year to January and said it could not afford to pay a bonus to its 74,000 staff, for only the second time since 1953.

Bonuses have been a celebrated and valuable part of working for the group, with every member of staff- from shelf fillers to executives - getting the same percentage. In good years they were as high as 24 per cent of salary, an amount that was paid in 1979, 1987 and 1988, and as recently as 2013 it was 17 per cent.