Tough times for 390 John Lewis staff as bosses delay decision on future of Peterborough store

Operations manager Tracy Venner outside John Lewis Queensgate after its £21 million revamp last November. EMN-191125-184936009

The Queensgate-based store, which employs 390 people, has been closed since the start of the lockdown 14 weeks ago and no date has yet been given for its re-opening.

This is despite the retailer announcing the restart of trading at 32 of its 50 stores nationwide.

It is feared that 10 of the remaining 18 stores could be closed as the retailer struggles to meet the runnings costs of its large shops as customers move online.

Bosses say no decision has yet been made on the future of the Peterborough store, even though it underwent a £21 million revamp late last year.

They say a decision is unlikely to be made until the middle of this month when staff will be informed first.

Its new chairman Sharon White has admitted the retailer is battling to cope with customers growing preference for online shopping.

And she says that overall the business has too much store space with expensive running costs for the post-Covid trading environment.

It is estimated that up to 70 per cent of spending in John Lewis stores will be online by the end of the Covid-19 crisis.

The Queensgate store spreads across four floors of the shopping centre and recently relinquished some ‘spare’ space to allow the mall’s £60 million cinema-led extension to take place.

A John Lewis spokeswoman said: “The reality is that we have too much store space for the way people want to shop now and we have shared this with our Partners.

“As difficult as it is, it is highly unlikely we will reopen all our John Lewis stores.

“However, no decision has been made and any details would be shared with Partners first by the middle of July.

The spokeswoman added: “The health and wellbeing of our customers and Partners is our utmost priority so we are taking a phased approach to the reopening of shops with comprehensive safety and social distancing measures in place.

“We have reopened 22 shops and a further 10 will open by July 16 to help us establish best practice before opening more shops throughout the summer.”