John Lewis Partnership has struck up a £125m deal to sell 11 Waitrose supermarkets to investment firm M&G.

The business, which has stores in Cheltenham, Stroud and Cirencester, will lease back the stores, which are mainly in the south of England, on 20-year inflation-linked contracts, as reported by Retail Gazette.

The deal is part of the partnership's bid to raise cash to fund its turnaround plan.

John Lewis also put 12 Waitrose stores up for sale last September, with the aim of raising £150m.

It was reported last week that the partnership plans to cut 11,000 jobs over the next five years to reduce costs by £900m. Workers in Gloucestershire were reported to be concerned about new redundancy terms.