John Lewis slashes thousands of prices to win back middle classes

John Lewis has launched thousands of new low-price products in a value range called Anyday as boss Dame Sharon White fights to lure the middle classes back to its stores and website.

The loss-making retailer will sell 2,400 items costing on average 20pc less than its current offering as part of the battle to revive its fortunes - with the price of some goods cut by half.

Anyday is a key plank of chairman Dame Sharon's drive to modernise John Lewis and appeal to young families, with items ranging from a £1.50 face cloth to a £499 three-seater sofa. It spans eight key areas of the home: bedroom, dining room, living room, kitchen, bathroom, nursery, home office and outdoor.

There is also an extensive baby care and baby clothing range, with car seats starting at £60, filling the price bracket that Mothercare occupied before it went bust.

Pippa Wicks, who was hired by Dame Sharon to run the department chain and help turn it around, denied the business is simply trying to copy rivals such as Ikea, Dunelm or Marks & Spencer.

She said: “It’s actually about saying ‘you can get our quality at even better value for money’. We want to encourage people to do more of the whole shop with us."

The 157-year-old retailer has shut 18 stores since Covid hit and plans to open smaller branches in place of some of its existing vast premises. Ms Wicks said she does not expect any further closures.

The rise in online shopping and the crippling impact of lockdowns has triggered the biggest crisis in the chain's history and forced John Lewis to review its existing space and strategy. It plunged to a £517m loss last year.

As well as cutting prices, Dame Sharon has also explored opening garden centres, offering financial services and even branching into affordable housing to boost revenue.

Ms Wicks said the retailer will use its buying power and that of supermarket chain Waitrose - which will also stock the range - to keep suppliers' charges low.

She added: “We really are modernising John Lewis from top to bottom and it’s going to take us a couple of years to do that - this is like a big first statement.”

John Lewis expects the range to eventually account for about a fifth of sales, and to attract more young families to its stores.

Ms Wicks said that Anyday will also be sold in the mini-John Lewis stores it plans to open “near to where people live”.

She expects one or two outlets to open this year out of 20 overall, but her team is only starting work on the new format next week.

She said: “We're clear now postcode by postcode where the potential lies for where our customers are and how they shop.

“We've been spending a lot of time with other department stores and around the world - Mexico, Chile, Spain, Germany, US - and we've been talking about what they're doing, what they're learning. There's been some helpful insight from those conversations, so we're not just dreaming it up.”

Ten John Lewis sites will get large Anyday pop-up shops. The remaining branches will get a smaller designated area for the range, which will be marked on shelves with a bright orange label to sett it apart from other John Lewis own-brand products.

Customers can order the new range on the retailer's website now or buy it in store from Monday. The mutual will expand into new categories with a further 1,000 products in the autumn.