John Lewis staff miss out on bonus as group reports £234m loss

Chairman warns of job losses after second ever full-year loss and 3% fall in sales at Waitrose

John Lewis and Waitrose staff will not get a bonus this year as the retail group fell £234m into the red – worse than expected and its second ever full-year loss.

The group said it made a pre-tax loss of £78m, compared with analysts’ expectations of £50m, but write-downs of the value of Waitrose stores after poor trading took the loss much higher.