John Lewis is back in the black for the first time in three years, but staff will face another year without bonuses.

The company behind Waitrose grocery stores and John Lewis department stores made a profit of £56m after losing £234m in the previous financial year.

this john lewis A partnership is employee-owned by long-term employees, called partners. These partners typically receive annual bonuses but were disappointed again this year.

This marks the third time since 1953 that the group has failed to pay employees annual bonuses.

But the company said it was investing in its retail operations and employee base wages.

The company said pay could rise by a record £116m this year.

Profit returns were mainly driven by Waitrose, with the number of customers shopping through the partnership rising by one million last year, taking the total number of shoppers to 22.6 million.

Waitrose’s profits rose by 19%, while those at John Lewis rose by just 2%.

Similarly, sales at Waitrose were up 5% on the previous year, while sales at John Lewis department stores were down 4%.

The profit figure was attributed to selling more goods, higher profits and “sustainable productivity gains”.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be released soon.

Please refresh the page for the full version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on your smartphone or tablet sky news app.You can also follow @SkyNews X on or subscribe to our YouTube channel Get the latest news.