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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Lewis Partnership
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The most successful example in Britain of a utopian experiment in profit sharing among a company's employees (the *Co-op, by contrast, returns profits to the customers). John Lewis (1836–1928) opened a small draper's shop in London's Oxford Street in 1864 and built it up into a department store; and in 1905 he bought *Peter Jones in Sloane Square. It was his son, Spedan Lewis, who in the 1930s turned the business into a partnership of its employees. After a reasonable dividend has been paid on invested capital, profits are distributed among the partners as a percentage of their annual pay.
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In 1937 the partnership acquired a small group of grocery shops founded in 1908 by Messrs Waite and Rose. By the end of the century these had been developed into nearly 100 Waitrose supermarkets round the country. In addition the John Lewis chain included by then more than 20 department stores.
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