John Lewis to finish £10m pension top-ups as scheme swings to surplus

The John Lewis Partnership is to avoid wasting tens of hundreds of thousands of kilos by ceasing a sequence of multimillion-pound injections into its pension scheme after it swung into surplus.

Sky News has learnt that the retail mutual will cease the annual deficit restore contributions following a triennial valuation of one in every of Britain’s greatest personal sector retirement schemes.

Sources mentioned the transfer might be disclosed when JLP declares its half-year outcomes on Thursday.

The news will likely be a welcome reduction to the proprietor of John Lewis department shops and Waitrose supermarkets, which has amassed substantial monetary losses lately.

Under chair Dame Sharon White, JLP has appointed its first chief government – Nish Kankiwala – who has warned it must “act at pace” to rework its efficiency.

The Partnership’s pension scheme has round 130,000 members.

It is predicted to point out a surplus of roughly £300m when the valuation as at 31 March 2022 is concluded.

That would examine to the earlier triennial valuation, to 31 March 2019, which confirmed a deficit of roughly £60m.

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One insider mentioned that utilizing the identical agreed valuation assumptions, the scheme can be anticipated to have been in surplus as at 31 March this yr.

JLP was among the many final firms to have a ultimate wage pension scheme.

In May 2019, its Partnership Council – one in every of its elected governing our bodies – unanimously agreed adjustments to its pension preparations, ensuing within the closure of the ultimate wage scheme and the introduction of a brand new outlined contribution pension.

A spokeswoman for the partnership declined to touch upon Wednesday.