The UK's Second Largest Co-operative

Last Updated on Sunday, 12 February 2012 02:01 Written by David Griffiths Saturday, 24 December 2011 00:31

The John Lewis Partnership and Waitrose is the 2nd largest co-operative in the UK with an annual turnover of A$13 billion and over 75,000 employees. Peter Cox is visiting Australia in 2012 and he has written a book about the John Lewis Partnership and Waitrose - Spedan's Partnership: The Story of John Lewis and Waitrose (2010).  Peter joined John Lewis in 1968 and retired from Waitrose in 2003 as its IT director. On Tuesday 24 January 2012 Peter Cox  gave an overview of the John Lewis story and provide insights into its model for employee ownershi to an audience of 50 people.

. The event was presented by Employee Share Ownership Australia & New Zealand, Greenwoods & Freehills and Co-operatives Victoria.

Participant Graeme Charles reports: "At the conclusion of his talk, Peter took questions from the obviously interested audience. The questions generally centred around issues of employee arrangements, such as executive salary levels, which Peter explained are vastly different to those being enjoyed in organisations of a different culture to JLP. Salaries are capped via the Partnership's Constitution."

"Some people appeared to have difficulty grasping the exact nature of the organisation's structure. Peter explained that it is a 'partnership' in which all employees become a partner from day one of their employment and as a partner each employee receives an annual bonus, which last year was set at 16% of their salary."

"The question of capital-raising was asked. The partnership does not raise capital from its partners. It relies on borrowing from the market-place and setting aside reserves from its annual profit, which of course is done before the employee bonus is declared."

"Peter's final question from the audience, asked  'If the JLP model has been so successful, for so long, why hasn't it been widely replicated in the UK?' His explanation was that there are not many people like the JLP founder, who basically endowed his established business to his employees, to be held in trust for them in perpetuity."

Graeme reports that copies of Peter's book about the JLP were available for sale and these were all eagerly snapped-up at the conclusion of his address.