The employee-owned business, which operates the eponymous John Lewis department store chain along with Waitrose supermarkets, reported a headline loss before tax and exceptional items of £89m over the six months to 1 August.
That compared to a red figure of £34m over the same period last year.
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On a bottom-line basis, losses widened from £88m to £124m. This was mostly blamed on a drive to simplify its head office functions, which had led to some job losses, JLP said.
Losses grew despite a 2% rise in group sales to £6.3bn.
JLP said the main drag on sales growth was consumer caution in spending on big-ticket items – such as furniture and electricals – at John Lewis.
The department store retailer saw sales decline by 2% over the six months, while Waitrose revenue climbed by 4%.
The results statement said: “Three dynamics affected financial performance in the half: deliberate choices to invest for the long term; tougher trading conditions, especially in general merchandise; and the increased costs of doing business.”
It added: “Operating costs grew through a combination of rising cost of employment, including the annualisation of last year’s national insurance increase, continued technology modernisation and costs of managing our operations through the heatwaves to maintain levels of service for customers.”
Jason Tarry, JLP’s chairman, told the Press Association that the partnership would do all it could to keep prices as low as possible for shoppers as it looked ahead to its core trading season of Christmas.
“Consumers are holding back on spending on bigger ticket items”, he said.
“They’re cautious at the moment, given what’s going on in the world.”
He was speaking just a day after UK wholesale natural gas prices ticked up to a four-year high, and Brent crude oil topped $100 a barrel for the first time since July amid the supply disruption caused by the Middle East conflict.
Food and other household essentials are tipped to rise in price, along with energy bills, as higher manufacturing costs are passed on. The food situation is expected to be made worse by poor harvests linked to the hot, dry summer.
JLP said: “There is no doubt the wider economic and geopolitical landscape has weighed on our customers during the first half, and we remain cautious in our outlook for the second half.”
Robyn Duffy, consumer markets senior analyst at the consultancy RSM UK, said of the partnership’s results: “Elevated prices, borrowing costs and uncertainty around the jobs market are making John Lewis’ core customers, of middle and higher-income families, increasingly cautious.
“The retailer is particularly exposed to big-ticket, deferrable categories like home, furniture and electricals – exactly where these consumers are choosing to cut back or delay spending.”
