The John Lewis Partnership board is reportedly mulling plans to restructure the business in order to streamline office roles, cut costs and bring its two retail chains closer together. The two retailers currently have separate HR departments, finance, marketing and procurement departments. They also have separate operating boards in three different head offices: one for Waitrose, one for John Lewis, and a third used for the partnership. Sir Charlie Mayfield – the outgoing chairman of the parent company of John Lewis and Waitrose – has drawn up plans to reduce duplication at the business to cut costs, which could lead to job losses as a result.

A spokesperson for the John Lewis Partnership said: "At our recent half year results we spoke about working as one business, with two brands. We are pressing on with this work and will share details in due course." The partnership's half-year report, published almost two weeks ago, showed it had swung to an underlying pre-tax loss of £25.9 million, compared to profits of £800,000 this time last year.The marked the partnership's first-ever half-year loss. Overall half-year revenue also took a hit, declining 1.4 per cent year-on-year to £4.78 billion. The partnership said its half-year losses were driven by widened operating losses at John Lewis, which increased to £61.8 million from £19.3 million a year ago as it suffered falling sales, surging costs of an IT overhaul and increasing cost inflation. Waitrose performed better, with underlying earnings increasing 14.7 per cent to £110.1 million, though like-for-like sales slipped 0.4 per cent year-on-year.