Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) for John Lewis Plc

Thursday 30 April 2020

John Lewis Plc has received confirmation that it is eligible to access up to £300m of funding under the HM Treasury and the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility.

The facility is designed to support liquidity among larger firms who are able to demonstrate that they make a material contribution to the UK economy, and able to demonstrate sound financial health, equivalent to an investment grade rating, prior to the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

John Lewis Plc also has access to £500m of committed bank facilities which are currently undrawn.

About the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers. Our food business is bigger than our non-food business and our John Lewis shop sales represent less than a quarter of the Partnership’s total revenue