Waitrose is a
British Supermarket chain owned by the
John Lewis Partnership , with 174 branches (February 2006). Like John Lewis's department stores, Waitrose is targeted at a middle class market, emphasising quality rather than low prices (their slogan reflects this; "Quality food, honestly priced".) Waitrose's main competitor in this market is
Marks & Spencer . It currently has a 3.6% nationwide
Market Share , with 7% market share in the more prosperous south of England.
Stores vary in size, from 7,000 to 56,000 square feet. Because of its corporate structure, shares in the company are held in trust on behalf of its employees (called partners). All employees receive an annual profit distribution which is usually around 10-15 percent of their annual salary - in effect the company is owned by its employees.
The company has a
Royal Charter to supply groceries, wine and spirits to
The Queen , and had a charter to supply groceries to the Queen Mother.
Waitrose originally traded mainly in
London and the South East of
England , though has expanded further north in recent years.The company was formed in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. They opened their first shop at 263 Acton Hill, West London. The company was taken over by The John Lewis Partnership in 1937 and it opened its first supermarket in 1955 in
Streatham .
In 2000, Waitrose purchased 11 stores from rival
Somerfield , and 19 former
Safeway stores were bought from
Morrisons in 2004, in a project known as Toronto. In order to meet competition regulations when it acquired Safeway, Morrisons had to sell more than 50 of the Safeway stores, and the first batch of stores sold went to Waitrose, suggesting that Waitrose had been given the pick of the divestment portfolio. It is speculated that Morrisons preferred to sell to Waitrose rather than to its larger rivals.
In August 2005 Waitrose purchased a further five former Safeway stores from Morrisons. This took the firm as far north as
Durham , fitting with its long term strategy to evolve into a national retailer. In December 2005, Waitrose also bought another shop at
Biggin Hill , Greater London, from Morrisons.
In March 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of five additional stores from Somerfield. This is a significant landmark, as it means that Waitrose opens two stores in Scotland (both in Edinburgh). This fitted neatly with its national supermarket chain plan. The stores being purchased are:
- Comely Bank, Edinburgh, Scotland - 20,500 sq ft/86 employees;
- Morningside, Falcon Avenue, Edinburgh, Scotland - 19,000 sq ft/158 employees;
- Balham, Balham High Road, South West London - 15,000 sq ft/71 employees;
- Barbican, Cherry Tree Walk, City of London - 14,000 sq ft/107 employees;
- Buxton, Spring Garden Centre, Buxton, Derbyshire - 15,000 sq ft/75 employees.
When these stores are handed over, in June 2006, Waitrose will have a total of 179 supermarkets. A further new built store, the 180th, will be opening in
Kenilworth ,
Warwickshire , by Christmas 2007. In addition, Waitrose has submitted a planning application for a 181st store in
Crewkerne ,
Somerset , and is considering making an application for a 182nd store in
Wimborne ,
Dorset . Many locals in Wimborne oppose the plans for the Wimborne store because the proposed site is within the town's conservation area and such a development would rob the town of an attractive open space at its centre.
Waitrose's long term goal is to have around 230 stores nationwide. There are as yet no plans to expand into Northern Ireland.
The current Waitrose logo was designed by Monotype fonts, and replaced an older logo (pictured right). The font is used on carrier bags, advertising, letterheads, signs and own brand products (as well as throughout
John Lewis stores-John Lewis adopted the same typeface around the same time), however some own brand products still carry the old logo.
Waitrose is known for offering services such as the WaitroseEntertaining (formerly 'By Invitation') range of products, which are foods made to order for special occasions. Waitrose also offers a range of other services including home delivery (in areas not served by
Ocado ), free glass loan and
Fish kettle service. Waitrose is particularly noted for its
Wine and beverage selection, and regularly wins awards at The International Wine and Spirit Competition and from publications such as ''Wine Magazine''. Waitrose also has a
Broadband Internet Service Provider offering, in which a proportion of the price goes to
Charity .
Waitrose sells a large number of own brand goods, but unlike other supermarkets such as
Tesco (which stocks a wide variety of own brand clothing, cookware etc) these are mainly food and household cleaning products. In contrast to many other chains, Waitrose also does not have an "economy" range or a range of luxury goods, mainly due to its image and market position as an upper/middle-class retailer which does not aim for low price points. Advertising for own brand goods tends to emphasise their uniqueness in comparison to other supermarkets, such as differences in production processes, higher quality or just general uniqueness (for instance they are the only supermarket to stock
Monsooned Malabar coffee).
In some stores the company offers ''Quick Check'', which allows customers to scan goods while they shop using a handheld scanner and then pay quickly at a special desk. This is only open to holders of the Partnership Card, a credit card with a fairly high
APR (therefore only open to over 18s), whereas before it was open to holders of an Account Card (more like a traditional
Loyalty Card ).''
In January 2000 the online food retailer
Ocado was launched. The company is 46% owned by the
John Lewis Partnership and offers home delivery of Waitrose groceries, ordered through the Internet.
Waitrose also operates its own delivery service, WaitroseDeliver, in areas not served by Ocado.
