Information about Waitrose

Waitrose Limited
Waitrose Logo
	Private
Founded	1904
Headquarters	Bracknell, Berkshire, England
Key people	Mark Price, Managing Director; Tony Solomons, Director of Selling
Industry	Supermarket
Products	Food
Revenue	£3.7bn GBP ( 11% FY 2005/2006)
Employees	~40,000
Parent	John Lewis Partnership
Website	www.waitrose.com

Waitrose is the supermarket division of the John Lewis Partnership, with 185 branches as of August 2007. Like the partnership's department stores, Waitrose is targeted at a middle class market, emphasising quality food and customer service rather than low prices (their slogan reflects this; "Quality food, honestly priced"). Waitrose's main competitors in this market are Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's. It currently has a 4% share of the food market, and additionally a 16% and 10% share of the organic food and wet fish markets respectively.

The company has a Royal Warrant to supply groceries, wine and spirits to the Queen, and had a warrant to supply groceries to the Queen Mother.

History

Waitrose was founded in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor, with Taylor leaving in 1906. They opened their first shop ("Waite, Rose and Taylor") at 263 Acton Hill, West London. In 1908, the name "Waitrose" (a portmanteau of the remaining founders' names) was adopted as the company was incorporated. The company (at the time with only 10 shops) was taken over by The John Lewis Partnership in 1937, with the then-160 employees becoming Partners (co-owners of the business). The chain's first supermarket opened in Streatham, London in 1955 - since then, the Waitrose chain has grown to include 184 supermarkets, and in 1981 counter service was introduced for fresh meat, fish and cheese. Also in the 1980s, Waitrose became the first major chain to begin selling organic food, a move since emulated by Tesco and Sainsbury's among others.

Growth

In recent years, the chain has seen a surge in expansion and profits, with a long term goal of having around 250 stores across the UK by 2015 and doubling revenue to £8bn by 2017. ^[1] In 2000, Waitrose purchased 11 stores from rival Somerfield, and 19 former Safeway stores were bought from Morrison's in 2004, in a project known as Toronto. In order to meet competition regulations when it acquired Safeway, Morrison's had to sell 52 of the Safeway stores, and the first batch of stores sold went to Waitrose.

In August 2005 Waitrose purchased a further five former Safeway stores from Morrison's. 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 store at Biggin Hill, Greater London, from Morrison's.

In March 2006, Waitrose announced the purchase of five additional stores. This was a significant landmark, as it meant that Waitrose opened two stores in Scotland (both in Edinburgh). The stores which were purchased were Comely Bank in Edinburgh, Morningside also in Edinburgh, Balham in South West London, Barbican in the City of London and Buxton in Derbyshire.

In July 2006, Waitrose announced it had purchased another six stores from Morrison's and also a former Safeway regional distribution centre in Aylesford, Kent^[2] expanding Waitrose to 182 stores. The six stores which were rebranded into Waitrose are located at Hexham in Northumberland, Eastbourne in East Sussex, Formby in Merseyside, Parkstone in Poole, Dorset, Lymington in Hampshire and Portswood in Southampton, Hampshire. In total, Waitrose have purchased 31 stores from Morrison's and 16 from Somerfield.

In 2007 there are three new Waitrose stores scheduled to open, the first of which opened in Harborne in Birmingham. This was followed by Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester in July. There are also plans to extend and refurbish a number of stores. Waitrose hopes to double its revenue by 2016, by introducing much more aggressive price cuts and rapid expansion into the north of the UK. South Manchester, in particular, has been listed as an opportunity for Waitrose, with Didsbury cited as being the most likely area for it to be constructed^[3].

Stores

Waitrose stores are mainly located in the south-east of England. The chain only has one store in Cornwall (in Saltash), three in Wales, eleven in the north of England and two in Scotland (both in Edinburgh).

Stores are usually finished with white walls (in stark contrast to more colourful stores such as Sainsbury's). Much attention is paid to the lighting with halogen spots in key areas such as service counters, fruit and vegetables and wines. Section names on walls are in the same colour as the walls and raised out of them, and so defined by shadows (there is usually a large Waitrose logo on a far wall in the same fashion.) Instore noise is kept to a minimum, with no music or spoken promotions, although a public address system is used for staff callouts and irregular customer announcements. Cages (trolleys for holding large amounts of stock, usually around 6 ft high) are used on the shop floor, and Partners also use smaller, more navigable stock trolleys. New (or refitted) Waitrose stores usually have a customer service ("welcome") desk separate from a kiosk or checkout.

Marketing and perception

The current Waitrose logo was designed by Monotype fonts and Interbrand,^[4][5] and replaced an older logo (pictured right).

Advertising for Waitrose tends to emphasise the chain's uniqueness in comparison to other supermarkets, such as differences in production processes, higher quality products or the expertise of their staff. Recent marketing has also attempted to portray the chain as more ethical than other supermarkets, especially with regards to Fairtrade produce. It should be noted that until very recently the company has made almost no effort to publicise price cuts in the media in the manner of other supermarkets, preferring to advertise them in-store. In addition — outside Waitrose's traditional south of England heartland — it rarely advertises on television.

Waitrose has been voted Britain's favourite retailer, ahead of their sister company John Lewis,^[6] who came second in the survey.^[7] Similarly to John Lewis, the company has a 'Price Commitment' policy, in which it either matches, or betters, prices on over 350 everyday items, such as milk, bread and toothpaste^[8]. In The Grocer's 33 list of common purchases compared against other supermarkets, only Somerfield are more expensive than Waitrose, which is in the region of 10 pence more expensive than the big four chains for each item.

Waitrose does not have an "economy" or "value" range, however some branches stock lower priced lines not bearing the Waitrose name and below the corresponding Waitrose-branded product.

It has been noted by various food writers (as reported on Radio 4's "Food Programme"), that Waitrose is the only supermarket that will illustrate the animal from which the meat product in the pack has come from; for example a pig illustrated on a pack of sausages, despite the middle-class squeamishness one might expect.

Goods and services

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, 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 an Internet Service Provider offering, which was recently rated 'Best ISP Provider' in a 'Which' survey. It supplies both dial-up and broadband Internet connections from which all profits are donated to charity. Another long term fixture is Waitrose Food Illustrated, an in-store food magazine (free to Partnership/Account card holders and Partners). On 2 October 2006, a new free magazine, Source, was launched to complement John Lewis' new Greenbee direct services business.

Most branches have one or two specialists, in wines, meat, fish and cheese to advise customers. They are given training and attend specialist courses, as well as visiting suppliers, to get hands-on experience.

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. Some stores now stock a selection of John Lewis-branded goods.

Partners, on request, will carry any amount of shopping to a customer's car for free (this service is predominantly used by elderly or disabled people, who can find it difficult to push a trolley to their car. However, it is also used by people who purchase an unusually large amount of shopping, and therefore need help pushing a second trolley). Partners will also unload shopping to a customer's car if asked.

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 an Account Card (John Lewis' former charge card, since discontinued) or the Partnership Card (a credit card which allows customers to earn John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers). The possibility of theft is lessened by the random checking ("rescanning") of customers' shopping.

Some British supermarkets offer direct services such as home and travel insurance. Waitrose does not offer these services as the company dominates on food and drink, however the John Lewis Partnership has recently launched a new division, Greenbee, whose services are promoted in Waitrose branches. These services do not come under the Waitrose brand and cannot be bought in branches.

Employment practices

Main article: John Lewis Partnership

As part of John Lewis, all of Waitrose's employees are Partners, part owners of the business. As such, they receive certain benefits, most notably the Partnership bonus, usually around 10–20% of a Partner's yearly salary in a lump sum paid in March (the highest bonus percentage in recent years has been 22%). In addition, after three months service Partners receive a yellow shopping card which entitles them to 12% discount in Waitrose and John Lewis Department Stores. After one year's service, Partners receive a red shopping card signifying they are entitled to higher rate discount (25%) on goods in John Lewis, previously requiring 3 years' service. Due to lower margins, discount remains at 12% in Waitrose and on electrical goods in the department stores. In a recent decision, the result of John Lewis Direct moving into profitability, the same discounts apply online.

Main focuses of training for new Partners are health and safety, fresh food handling, fire safety and customer service. Partners are trained to drop whatever they are doing (within reason) upon request from a customer, and also to lead customers asking for the location of a product to the product, and handing it over. In 2005 the business introduced a 'Mystery Shopper' programme to score its branches on the service they provide. The mystery shopper grades the branch on its presentation and on the service the branch provides at its service counters, checkouts, wine department and shop floor.

The current uniform for male non-management partners is a green shirt with green and grey patterned necktie and grey trousers and optional apron whereas for females the uniform is a heavily patterned blouse and a choice of grey skirt, trousers and optional apron or tabard. Section managers, Assistant Section Managers and Acting ASMs wear white shirts, grey trousers and can chose to wear green blazer style jackets. Senior branch management (branch manager and department manager) wear suits. Section managers trained as duty managers will wear suits whilst acting as the most senior manager in the branch.

The employee levels are: non-management partner, assistant section manager (ASM), section manager (SM), department manager (DM), branch manager (BM), Head of Selling Operations (Area Manager), Selling director and finally at the top, the managing director, Mark Price. Price reports to the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Charlie Mayfield. Waitrose offer many different management courses which are the best in the retail business. These include the Retail Management Training Scheme (RMT) where school leavers train to become section managers within two years, continuing to become department managers three years later and a Graduate Scheme that sees people achieving department manager level within two years.

Online shopping

In January 2000 the online food retailer Ocado was launched. The company is 30% 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, which is only available in selected stores. Some stores also offer a delivery service — customers complete the shopping instore and is delivered by Waitrose to their home at a convenient time.

Charitable work

Waitrose's ISP donates all of its profits, less marketing and running costs, to charity. New users choose from a set of different charities to donate to^[9] and donations are distributed proportionally.

The supermarket launched the Waitrose Foundation in 2005, providing funds for education, worker facilities and health services among other things for fruit growers in South Africa. After being the first supermarket in the country to sell loose Fairtrade bananas, most of Waitrose's vegetable varieties also include organic varieties.^[10] In addition, 90% of the chain's roses are Fairtrade.^[11]

All Waitrose branches are able to manage their own charitable donations and local decisions are made on which charities are to be supported.

References

External links

• John Lewis Partnership
• Waitrose
• Waitrose Wines Direct
• Waitrose Internet
• WaitroseDeliver
• Ocado
• Food retail wars rend a London neighborhood Article from the International Herald Tribune about Waitrose
• Google Maps Overlay of Waitrose Store Locations
• Greenbee — Direct Services from the John Lewis Partnership

•  • [ e] Supermarkets in the United Kingdom
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