LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - British retailer the John Lewis Partnership reported a return to annual profit that partly reflected cost savings, and forecast further improvement in the current year.

The employee-owned group, which runs John Lewis department stores and the Waitrose supermarket chain, said on Thursday it made a profit before tax and exceptional items of 42 million pounds ($54 million) in the year to Jan. 27, versus a loss of 78 million pounds in 2022/23. ($1 = 0.7817 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)