Secondhand Prada And Cooking Lessons? John Lewis Gambles £800m On Store Makeovers

The retailer plans a dramatic rethink of the chain, to include spas, boutiques and talks by authors, after deciding ‘shops are here to stay’

Body piercing, cooking lessons Jamie Oliver-style, luxury hi-tech skin treatments and preloved Prada handbags … This is John Lewis, but not as you know it, with a £6.5m revamp of its high-profile branch on London’s Oxford Street signalling its belief that department stores have a future.

After a hiatus when it sought to move away from retail and make money from other things, such as renting flats and selling home insurance, the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, confirmed plans to invest £800m in its namesake brand over the next four years. A large chunk of the money is to be spent on revitalising its stores.