Former Lloyds boss joins John Lewis

The former boss of Lloyds Banking Group’s high street branches has landed one of the top jobs at department stores business John Lewis Partnership.

Helen Weir became chief executive of Lloyds’ retail arm in 2008 but stood down in March in the wake of a boardroom reshuffle by new boss Antonio Horta-Osorio. She will join the Waitrose retailer on April 1 and will formally take on the role of group finance director two months later, replacing Marisa Cassoni whose plan to retire was announced in September.

Ms Weir has plenty of retail experienceas she was finance director of B&Q between 1995 and 2000 before spending a further four years in the same role at parentcompany Kingfisher.

She will join a business which recorded revenues of €4.8 billion in its last half-year and booked profits of €108 million over the same period.

Its department store business and Waitrose both grew sales last week despite the disruption caused by snow and ice.

Helped by softer comparisons with a year earlier, John Lewis stores lifted revenues by 4.1 per cent to €63 million in the seven days to February 11, helped by a gain of 33 per cent for its store in Poole.

Sales across the store business were down by 22 per cent at the start of the week but then bounced back, with Tuesday’s till roll showing 13 per cent growth.

Waitrose sales were 5.5 per cent higher at €122.5 million, the partnership added.