John Lewis Partnership said eight of its 42 John Lewis shops won’t

 said eight of its 42 John Lewis shops won’t reopen when the Coronavirus lockdown is lifted, reflecting the shift towards online shopping.

The eight shops identified for closure include four ‘At Home’ shops in Ashford, Basingstoke, Chester and Tunbridge Wells and four department stores in Aberdeen, Peterborough, Sheffield and York.

Its remaining 34 John Lewis shops will reopen from April 12, subject to government guidance, with the exception of Glasgow, which will reopen from April 26, and Edinburgh, which will reopen on May 14.

Last week, the retailer reported its first-ever annual loss and warned that not all of its stores will reopen when the lockdown ends.

READ: John Lewis Partnership slumps to first-ever annual loss

Some shops planned not to reopen are in locations that can’t sustain a large store.

“We can unfortunately no longer profitably sustain a large John Lewis store in some locations where we do not have enough customers, which is resulting in the proposed closures. The eight shops were financially challenged prior to the pandemic,” the group said. 

“We expect 60% to 70% of John Lewis sales to be made online in the future. Nearly 50% of our customers now use a combination of both store and online when making a purchase.”

The group said it proposes to create more places to shop John Lewis products across the UK. It plans to improve a next day Click & Collect service in Waitrose stores and offer more local collection points through third parties.

It is trialling the introduction of John Lewis shopping areas in its Waitrose stores and by the autumn, Waitrose general merchandise products will be sourced by John Lewis, and it is also testing out new formats of smaller, local neighbourhood shops offering the best of John Lewis.

“Closing stores is the toughest thing we do as a Partnership because we all own our business,” said executive director Pippa Wicks. If the closures are confirmed, every effort will be made to find new roles for Partners and for us to continue to serve our customers by providing access to John Lewis in different ways.

The partnership also confirmed that it reached an agreement with XPO Logistics to operate the Waitrose distribution centre in Leyland, Lancashire, on its behalf.