John Lewis may find that cuddly co-investors don’t exist

theguardian.com:

W ould the world fall apart if the John Lewis Partnership were not 100% owned by its staff? Would the shoppers revolt if an outside investor – say a sovereign wealth fund or benevolent pension fund – were to acquire a 25% stake, as suggested by the tentative plan emerging from the boardroom?

Actually, the answer is probably no on both counts. A few Waitrose and John Lewis shoppers might cut up their loyalty cards in disgust if their cornflakes and kitchenware came without a full helping of mutuality, but one suspects they would be a tiny minority.

In any case, the priority should be chasing shoppers lost during the cost of living crisis. Waitrose shed a chunk of market share last year and reported a decline in sales when virtually every other supermarket chain showed a headline boost thanks to inflation. It suggests price, stock availability and competitiveness are what really drive customer behaviour, which is hardly a revelation.

There is probably more weight in the thought that morale – seen as key to JLP’s still-high customer service scores – would suffer if co-workers had to coexist with an outside investor. But, again, the worry may be overdone. It has been years since we’ve seen pictures of happy partners crowding balconies at the Oxford Street department store to cheer the announcement of the annual bonus. Last year’s loss was £234m and the partners’ bonus was zero. “What’s damaging to morale is not making money or paying a bonus,” says retail analyst Nick Bubb. Fair point.

You can, then, imagine how chair Sharon White could pitch a proposal to the partnership’s governing council and hope to get the necessary two-thirds majority. She’d appeal to self-interest. The strategy wouldn’t be guaranteed to work, but would