Nish Kankiwala is to step down as CEO of the John Lewis Partnership when his tenure comes to an end.
The position of CEO will be folded permanently, handing new chairman Jason Tarry control of the partnership “by March 2025”. Kankiwala will remain with the business, reverting to a non-executive role advising the board.
The announcement, made on 7 October, confirmed what had been a widely expected reshuffle following Tarry’s appointment as Sharon White’s successor in April, and recently improved performance across both Waitrose and John Lewis over the past year.
It’s understood the transition coincides with the natural end of Kankiwala’s contract, which was on an initial two-year basis.
Having sat on the retailer’s board since April 2021, the former Hovis CEO was promoted as the Partnership’s first-ever CEO under Sharon White in March 2023, with the task of helping to reverse consecutive years of losses and falling market share.
Since then, he’s played a key supporting role in the implementation of a widespread cost-cutting strategy, as well as the launch of a new long-term strategy focused “unashamedly” on the retail basics.
There have been some early signs of progress, with JLP returning to profit in March 2024. Half-year results published in September showed further improvement, with sales and revenue up by 2% ahead of the crucial golden quarter.
“The board asked me to move across from my non-executive director role to chief executive back in March 2023,” Kankiwala said.
“This was in view of such a significant time for the Partnership and to help accelerate this phase of the transformation.
“I was delighted to agree to take on the role for a two-year period during this time of pivotal change. Since then, we’ve refreshed our Partnership strategy to be rooted in retail; significantly improved our cashflows to enable record investment for growth; and returned the Partnership to full-year profit.
“It’s been the privilege of my life to lead the Partnership as CEO during this period of intense transformation. I am hugely proud of what we’ve achieved so far – thanks to the hard work and dedication of our partners. I have every confidence in Jason taking the Partnership from strength to strength in the next phase of our transformation, and am delighted to continue to support him and the Board in an advisory capacity going forward.”
Tarry – who was formerly Tesco UK CEO – started as chairman on 16 September. He thanked Kankiwala for the “pivotal role” he played during his time as CEO.
“In the past two years he has been instrumental in accelerating the transformation of the Partnership. It’s a pleasure to work alongside Nish and I’m grateful that he has agreed to stay on as a non-executive board advisor. His ongoing support will be invaluable.”
Rita Clifton, who as deputy chairman and chair of the nomination committee led the appointments of both Kankiwala and Tarry, said: “We created the CEO role at the beginning of 2023 because of the scale of transformation and intense level of commercial focus needed in such unprecedented market circumstances.
”With his exceptional transformational experience and track record in consumer businesses, we asked Nish to move across from his non-executive director role to take on this new role of CEO for a concentrated period. We are deeply grateful that he agreed, and for all that he has delivered for the Partnership in this particular phase of our transformation.
“We are delighted that Nish will support Jason during this transitional period. The Partnership will also continue to benefit from Nish’s expertise in his continuing role as a non-executive advisor to the board.”
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