John Lewis Partnership calls direct review

A review process, which is in its early stages, is being handled by AAR. Kitcatt Nohr Digitas is the incumbent on both accounts, which rank as two of the agency's top three spending accounts.

Kitcatt Nohr Digitas has worked on Waitrose since 2006 and John Lewis since 2007. It was responsible for overseeing John Lewis’ first serious direct marketing push six years ago after beating Rapier to the business.

Adam & Eve/DDB, which looks after John Lewis’ advertising account, is unaffected by the review.

Kitcatt Nohr Digitas handles direct marketing for both brands as well as the myWaitrose loyalty programme. The agency is understood to be developing a similar scheme for John Lewis.

Craig Inglis, the marketing director at John Lewis, said: "We have ambitious plans for CRM, which will allow us to further personalise the great service we already offer our customers. We feel that now is the right time to review the market and ensure we have the right support in place to deliver our strategy."

Earlier this month, John Lewis revealed bumper Christmas trading after like-for-like sales growth of 13per cent for the five weeks to 29 December.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk