A Brief History of John Lewis.

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A Brief History of John Lewis

Spedan Lewis who was the son of the founder John Lewis believed quite simply that it was unfair for either the private owners of a business, or shareholders who invested money in it, to have a greater claim on its prosperity than those who invested their time and labour. The democratic nature and profit sharing basis of the business were continually strengthened and were ultimately secured by two Settlements in trust in 1929 and 1950. These provided for distribution of profits among Partners, established a written constitution for the business and transferred all Spedan Lewis's rights of ownership to trustees. It is this that has made the John Lewis partnership what it is today. John Lewis is the biggest partnership in the whole of the Untied Kingdom

In 1864 John Lewis started the partnership when he set up a drapers shop in oxford street, London, which developed into a full-scale department store. In 1905 he acquired the Peter Jones department store in Chelsea, where his son, Spedan Lewis, began an experiment in sharing power with his staff. He set up a staff council, a 'Committee for Communication' (in which non-management