John Lewis has axed its bonus twice in a row. It can’t do it a third time

Another year, another doughnut. John Lewis and Waitrose staff might justifiably feel particularly irked about this year’s second consecutive zero bonus given that the partnership has made a profit, albeit a pretty modest one, after the previous year’s deep fall into the red. 

It is the first time in John Lewis’s history that the bonus has been axed two years on the trot. 

The decision will do little to restore the cheery service reputation that John Lewis was once famed for and made shopping there a pleasant experience compared with other retailers.

In truth it feels like the business is treading water, the big decisions about its future parked while the clock runs down on £990,000- a-year Dame Sharon White’s five-year tenure as chair. It is not scheduled to come to an end until next February, though there is an option for her to step down before then if a successor is found and available to step into her shoes.

Her successor is likely to be a retailer, the experiment with a hire from outside the industry is not judged to have been a success, though it has to be said Dame Sharon was dealt a tough hand. 

The changing of the guard has been made a little more complex by the appointment of a chief executive, Nish Kankiwala, for the first time last year. In the old days the John Lewis Partnership executive chairman really was the undoubted top dog in the organisation. 

Now anyone approached about the job now can legitimately ask what will separate the responsibilities of chair and CEO. Perhaps the partnership will be forced to break with tradition and make what will only be the seventh chairman in its history a part-timer, pushing the governance of the firm much closer to a traditional plc structure. 

John Lewis, like Marks & Spencer, is a business that most people want to see succeed. A return to profit is a good omen but many challenges lie ahead. Not least getting the grumpy shop floor back on side with a restoration of the bonus. 

That has to be a priority. No one wants a hat-trick of doughnuts.