John Lewis announces Waitrose closures: Is your local store safe?

The John Lewis Partnership have announced that they will be shutting five of their Waitrose stores, in a bid to restore profits to the company.

The John Lewis partnership, which runs 50 John Lewis stores across the country and 350 Waitrose shops, have revealed that they will make ‘almost no profit’ on the first six months of this year – pointing to the reason behind the newly announced store closures.

Five Waitrose convenience shops are earmarked for closure.

So which stores will be closing – and is your local one of them? Here’s the full list of Waitrose closures:

• Spinningfields, Manchester
• Camden, north London
• Manchester Piccadilly
• Colmore Row, Birmingham
• Portman Square, west London

It’s thought that the spaces will instead be replaced by other supermarket chains, with the one in Camden being sold to Aldi. The others are predicted to be sold to Co-op. It’s not yet known when the Waitrose shops will shut down.

The John Lewis group also confirmed that it would be ‘slimming down’ its high-street presence, in order to restore profit to the company.

They also stated that two of their John Lewis stores would decrease in size – one of which will be their Peterborough branch. The other store has not yet been confirmed.

MORE: House of Fraser set to close 31 stores – is yours on the proposed list?

Chair of the John Lewis Partnership, Sir Charlie Mayfield, said of the changes, “It is very important that we feel the jeopardy of what is happening right now. This isn’t a blip, it is a major shift and it has a while to run.”

However, the company have confirmed that they would not be closing stores to the extent that their fellow high-street shops, Marks & Spencer, and House of Fraser, have been.

Recently, M&S announced that they would be closing 100 stories nationwide over the next four years – which House of Fraser have revealed plans to close 31 shops.

John Lewis and Waitrose will also be changing their signature green branding too, as part of the new plans.

Instead of the recognisable green design, the group have opted for a simple black logo – which incorporates both brands that exist within the partnership.

Charlie Mayfield also confirmed that John Lewis would be changing some of their in-store offerings too, to better appeal to customers.

He revealed that they aim to bring in more own-brand labels, and improve services such as personal shopping. They also have plans to bring in trained baristas and diet experts in their Waitrose stores.

So is your local Waitrose safe?