The UK’s largest employee-owned business, which owns John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, reported a loss before tax and exceptional items of £34m for the six months to 26 July.
That compared to a £5m loss in the same period last year. The higher figure was reached despite a 4% rise in group sales to £6.2bn.
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“This result was significantly impacted by costs not present in the equivalent prior period”, the partnership explained, “including £29m of costs for the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging levy (where we took the full annual cost in our first half results), alongside higher National Insurance Contributions (NICs)”.
JLP said the loss figure also reflected additional investment in its systems and growth-led teams.
It insisted it was on track to grow profitability in the core second half of its financial year despite a “challenging” macroeconomic environment.
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