Waitrose-parent company John Lewis Partnership CEO Nish Kankiwala is to step back into his non-executive role at the group.

Kankiwala will resume his position on the board in March 2025 to support new chairman, former Tesco UK boss Jason Tarry, who succeeded Dame Sharon White last month.

The Partnership said the role of chief executive will not be directly replaced, and reflects the “significant progression of the transformation” of the business.

Kankiwala’s move comes less than two year’s since Waitrose parent company appointed the former Hovis CEO, as its chief executive.

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He said: “The board asked me to move across from my non-executive director role to chief executive back in March 2023. This was in view of such a significant time for the Partnership and to help accelerate this phase of the transformation.

“I was delighted to agree to take on the role for a two-year period during this time of pivotal change. Since then we’ve refreshed our Partnership strategy to be rooted in retail; significantly improved our cash flows to enable record investment for growth; and returned the Partnership to full-year profit.”

John Lewis Partnership deputy chairman and Nomination Committee chair Rita Clifton added: “We created the CEO role at the beginning of 2023 because of the scale of the transformation and intense level of commercial focus needed in such unprecedented market circumstances.

“With his exceptional transformational experience and track record in consumer businesses, we asked Nish to move across from his non-executive director role to take on this new role of CEO for a concentrated period.

“We are deeply grateful that he agreed, and for all that he has delivered for the Partnership in this particular phase of our transformation. We are delighted that Nish will support Jason during this transitional period. The Partnership will also continue to benefit from Nish’s expertise in his continuing role as a non-executive advisor to the board,” Clifton added.