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The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned UK company which operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and some other services. The company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees — known as ''Partners'' – who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. The group is the third largest UK private company in the ''Sunday Times'' Top Track 100 for 2010.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Top 10 for 2010 )〕 Additionally, John Lewis also has the distinction of being UK's best high-street website after beating M&S in October 2010.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=John Lewis beats M&S as the UK's best high-street website )〕 The chain's image is upmarket, and it appeals strongly to middle- and upper-class shoppers. Recently, however, John Lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the 'Value' range to John Lewis and the 'Essential' range to Waitrose, and the expansion of the business. The Partnership also supplies the Ocado web supermarket with Waitrose own-brand foods and John Lewis own-brand non-food items. ==History== John Lewis opened a drapery shop in 1864 at 132 Oxford Street, in London. He had been born in Shepton Mallet in Somerset in 1836, and been apprenticed at 14 to a linen draper in Wells. 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 turned down 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. There he sold silk and woollen cloth and haberdashery. His retailing philosophy was to buy good quality merchandise and sell it at a modest “mark up”. Although he carried a wide range of merchandise he didn’t bother much about displaying it and never advertised. His skill lay in sourcing the goods he sold, and most mornings he would go to the City, accompanied by a man with a hand barrow. Later he would make trips to Paris to buy silks.〔Kennedy, Carol, "Business Pioneers: Sainsbury, John Lewis, Cadbury", Random House Business Books, 2000〕 Lewis spurned holidays and games and devoted himself entirely to the business, which was successful. He invested the money he made from it in residential and small retail properties, many of which he never visited. He expanded the Oxford Street business by renting neighbouring properties on Oxford Street and then along Holles Street, and gradually moved into other classes of merchandise: first the new area of ready-made women’s apparel, and later children’s wear and furniture. He never held “sales”, saying that he was intent on building a sound, permanent business.〔Cox, Peter "Spedan's Partnership, the story of John Lewis and Waitrose" , Labatie Books, 2010〕 In 1884 and aged 48 Lewis married Eliza Baker, a schoolmistress with a university education, who was 18 years his junior. They set up home in a mansion on the edge of Hampstead Heath, for which Lewis made up the name Spedan Tower after his aunt, Ann Speed, and when Eliza bore a son in 1885 he was called John Spedan Lewis. A second son, Oswald Lewis, was born in 1887. 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.〔 There was constant quarrelling between Lewis and his sons. By 1909 Oswald wanted out and Lewis senior reluctantly agreed to buy back Oswald’s quarter share of the business for £50,000 (equivalent to about £4.5 million in 2010). Oswald went to read Law at Oxford, qualified as a barrister, and became a cavalry officer in 1914, but was injured and discharged in 1916, whereupon he accepted an invitation from his father to rejoin the business.〔 Lewis had several run-ins with Lord Howard de Walden, his Oxford Street landlord, and in 1903 he spent three weeks in Brixton Prison for defying a court order obtained by de Walden. In 1911 de Walden sued him for libel; Lewis was found guilty, but the jury awarded damages of just a farthing. 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. Lewis walked from Oxford Street with the £20,000 purchase price in bank notes.〔 In the next 13 years the Peter Jones business was not profitable – no dividends were paid to Lewis and the external shareholders and in desperation in 1914 Lewis appointed his son Spedan as chairman of Peter Jones. 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. He held regular meetings at which staff could air any grievances directly with him. In 1916, after a disagreement with his father, Spedan Lewis exchanged his 25 per cent interest in the Oxford Street business for Lewis’s shares in Peter Jones Limited. He made improvements in staff conditions, including granting a third week’s paid holiday each year. He had hot and cold running water installed in the staff bedrooms over the shop. In 1918 he started publishing a fortnightly newspaper telling staff how the business was faring. In 1919 he instituted a staff council, the first decision of which was that staff should be paid weekly instead of four-weekly. Business prospered: there was a profit of £20,000 in 1920.〔 Spedan Lewis’s radical idea was that the profits generated by business should not be paid solely to shareholders as a reward for their capital. Shareholders should receive a reasonable but limited return, and labour should be the recipient of the excess. His concept of “fairer shares” involved sharing gain, knowledge and power. In 1920 Spedan started distributing Peter Jones preference shares to staff, who were now called “Partners”. In contrast, John Lewis made no improvements to the conditions of his staff, and grievances built up to such an extent that in 1920 there was a five-week strike at Oxford Street. Despite support for the strikers from – among others - Queen Mary, Lewis sacked them and engaged new staff. The early 1920s were not successful for Peter Jones. Dividends on preference shares, many of which were held by Partners, were not paid. In 1924 there was a reconciliation between John Lewis and Spedan Lewis. Trade at Oxford Street had fared better, and John Lewis made a cash injection into the Sloane Square business.〔 In 1925 Spedan Lewis devised the slogan “never knowingly undersold” at Peter Jones. 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. Trade improved and profit sharing was resumed. By 1926 Lewis senior was 90, Spedan was impatient to gain control of John Lewis, Oxford Street, so that he could implement his radical ideas there, and Oswald again wanted out. Without telling their father, Spedan took out a bank loan and bought out Oswald’s inheritance. After going round the world, Oswald embarked on a political career, becoming Conservative Party MP for Colchester in 1929, and holding the seat until 1945. John Lewis died aged 92 in 1928, and Spedan Lewis became sole owner of the Oxford Street business, in addition to Peter Jones. That same year, he bought the premises of T J Harries on the eastern side of Holles Street in Oxford Street, into which he expanded John Lewis. In 1929 Spedan Lewis signed a deed of settlement which transferred shares in John Lewis & Co. Limited and Peter Jones Limited to trustees (himself, his wife and his brother-in-law). 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. In return, Spedan Lewis took £1 million of non-interest-paying loan stock, which would be repaid to him over thirty years. He would retain personal control of the business, but would not receive any interest, fees or salary, living on the repayment of the loan stock. These annual capital repayments were initially equivalent to about £1.5 million in 2010 money, but inflation reduced their value by the 1950s to the equivalent of about £0.5 million in 2010 money. In 1933 the John Lewis Partnership started acquiring other retail businesses, buying Jessop & Son of Nottingham, and Lance & Lance of Weston-super-Mare. In 1934 it acquired Knight & Lee in Southsea, and Tyrrell & Green in Southampton. It also started rebuilding Peter Jones to a modern design. In 1937 it bought Waitrose Limited, which operated ten counter-service grocery shops in London and the home counties.〔http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/our-founder.html accessed 11 November 2012〕 The biggest acquisition came in 1940, when the John Lewis Partnership paid £30,000 for Selfridge Provincial Stores Limited, which owned 16 shops: Blinkhorn & Son in Gloucester and Stroud, Buckleys in Harrogate, A H Bull in Reading, Bon Marché in Brixton, Caleys in Windsor, Cole Brothers in Sheffield, George Henry Lee in Liverpool, Holdrons in Peckham, John Barnes in Hampstead, Jones Brothers in Holloway, Pratts in Streatham, Quin & Axten in Brixton, Robert Sayle in Cambridge, Thomsons in Peterborough, and Trewin Brothers in Watford, although many of these stores were subsequently closed or repurposed in later years. The business now comprised 21 department stores and 10 grocery shops. The War took its toll, and several stores were damaged by bombing, notably the “west house” of John Lewis, Oxford Street (on the west side of Holles Street), which was lost completely in September 1940. Some small businesses were acquired, including the John Pound leather goods shops, and two further department stores. In 1948 three drapery stores were created in South Africa, but were closed in 1954. In 1950 Spedan Lewis executed a second deed of settlement, which passed ownership of the John Lewis Partnership to trustees to hold for the benefit of those who worked in the business. He continued to manage it as if he were still the owner, saying in 1957 that it was necessary to concentrate management in one pair of hands.〔http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/our-founder/bbc-broadcast.html〕 Spedan Lewis also retained for himself the right to choose his successor when he retired on his 70th birthday in 1955. He had originally intended that Michael Watkins, his right-hand man for many years, would succeed him as chairman, but Watkins died in 1950. Spedan asked his son, Edward Lewis, if he would fill the role but he declined. Spedan appointed a loyal, long-serving lieutenant, Bernard Miller, but expressed the hope that in due course Edward would succeed Miller as chairman. In the event, Miller was succeeded by Peter Lewis, the son of Oswald Lewis.〔 In 1953 the John Lewis Partnership sold several small stores but acquired two large ones: Heelas in Reading and Bainbridge in Newcastle. The rebuilt store on Oxford Street was reopened in 1960, and the sculpture ''Winged Figure'' by Barbara Hepworth was added in 1962. The principle and slogan ''never knowingly undersold'' adopted in 1925 is still honoured and has been widely copied. The principle has been refined, most notably to exclude retailers who trade only online. The pledge has recently been revised to include extended insurance and delivery charges when comparing prices. John Lewis monitors local competitors and reduces the shelf-edge price if it is being "undersold". To accommodate national advertising, in 2002 the company began the process of renaming department stores not branded as John Lewis (Tyrrell & Green, Heelas, etc.) with the nationally recognisable name. Peter Jones in London and Knight and Lee in Southsea remain the only exception to this policy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Lewis Partnership」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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