The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose cut 3,500 jobs last year amid efforts to save costs in a tough market – but employed its first group chief executive on a more than £1m pay deal. The staff-owned group, which has 34 John Lewis department stores and 329 Waitrose supermarkets, said it employed 72,900 people in its annual report published on Thursday, down from 76,400 a year before, helping to reduce its pay bill to £1.79bn from £1.82bn. Pay for the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) chair, Sharon White, remained steady at £1.12m, but the report indicates that its chief executive, Nish Kankiwala, who stepped into the role in March last year is now the highest paid director on £1.18m. Related: John Lewis staff brace for shake-up as ex-Tesco UK boss named group chair A further unnamed director, thought to be the outgoing finance director, Bérangère Michel, is paid between £650,000 and £700,000, with all other board directors paid £150,000 or less. The bosses of Waitrose and John Lewis do not sit on the board and so their pay is not revealed in the annual report. Most staff cuts over the past year were in Waitrose stores after a rejig of...