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Waitrose is a British supermarket chain owned by the John Lewis Partnership, with 179 branches (June 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", sometimes suffixed with "Expertly served". 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. (A side effect of this is that the company could not effectively be taken over by a rival chain.)
The company has a Royal Warrant to supply groceries, wine and spirits to the Queen, and had a charter to supply groceries to the Queen Mother.
History
Waitrose originally traded mainly in London and the South East of England, though it 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 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, possibly as they serve different markets.
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 under the name of Project Turin. This was a significant landmark, as it meant that Waitrose opened two stores in Scotland (both in Edinburgh). This fitted neatly with its national supermarket chain plan. The stores which were purchased were:
- Comely Bank, Edinburgh, Scotland - 20,500 sq ft/86 employees;
- Morningside, Morningside Road, Edinburgh, Scotland - 19,000 sq ft/58 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.
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.
The purchase of the Safeway branches was called Project Totonto. This follows a trend of the first letter of the project name following the first letter of the most important part of that project in the alphabet - S-afeway and T-oronto. The same is also the same for S-omerfield and T-urin.
Stores
With the Somerfield and Morrison's stores now handed over, as of June 2006 Waitrose have a total of 179 supermarkets.
Waitrose's long term goal (by 2015) is to have around 230 stores nationwide. There are as yet no plans to expand into Northern Ireland. Recently they have entered into a partnership with the Indian supermarket chain HyperCity to distribute Waitrose own-brand products in store *
Waitrose is mainly located in the south east of England. The chain only has one store in Cornwall (in Saltash, quite literally right next to the border between Cornwall and Devon), four in Wales, eleven in the north of England and two in Scotland (both in Edinburgh). Given Waitrose's targetting of middle class/affluent areas, it is unsurprising that they do not have many stores in Cornwall (the UK's poorest area) or in the North of England (generally seen as less prosperous than in the south).
In store
Stores are usually finished in a beigeish colour with white walls (in stark contrast to more colourful stores such as Sainsbury's). 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 tannoy system is used for staff callouts and occasional customer announcements. Cages (trolleys for holding large amounts of stock, usually around 6ft high) are not allowed on the shop floor during opening hours except in exceptional circumstances (i.e. extreme stock shortages which require a large volume of stock to be put onto shelves). Instead partners are required to use smaller, more navigable stock trolleys, with a limit of one per partner at a time on the shop floor. Unlike most other supermarkets, Waitrose stores usually have a welcome desk seperate from a kiosk or checkout.Marketing and perception
The current Waitrose logo was designed by Monotype fonts and Interbrand [http://www.interbrand.com/portfolio_details.asp?portfolio=2239, and replaced an older logo (pictured right). The logo (and its associated 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 (notably milk bottles). A series of diagonal lines which also represent the John Lewis partnership as a whole, the "tyre tracks", form a major part of the store's branding and can be seen on carrier bags and lorries. 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). 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 the company makes almost no effort to publicise price cuts in the media in the manner of other supermarkets, preferring to advertise them in-store.
Waitrose's colours are a light green and white. Before 2004, the colours were orange, black and white (orange tyre tracks can still be seen on some lorries; these older tracks are designed to look as if they have been painted on, where as the newer ones are perfectly straight). Waitrose do not use the colours on most of their own brand products, and indeed the packaging style of such products is highly dependent on which section of the store they are located in.
Waitrose has been voted Britain's second favourite retailer, behind their parent company John Lewis. although their market share does not reflect this. While their quality is frequently lauded (even Tesco, not typically one to market on the basis of quality, has run marketing campaigns comparing the quality of their produce to Waitrose's) their pricing is the subject of derision among many, with some perceiving it as being needlessly expensive and/or out of the average person's price range (the British supermarket sector is generally price driven and extremely cut-throat about such things). The company states that they attempt to either match or better prices on standard household items such as milk and bread [http://www.waitrose.com/about/waitrosedifference/index.asp, and Waitrose's prices are generally on the same level as Sainsbury's.
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 (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 an Internet Service Provider offering, supplying 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).
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. There are however larger stores known as Waitrose Food and Home, which stock a selection of John Lewis' goods.
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. Arguably, having such a range would damage Waitrose's brand; given their reputation for quality at all costs, putting their name on explicitly substandard goods could lead to their carefully built brand being dragged downhill.
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 or the Partnership Card (a credit card which allows customers to earn John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers). The Partnership Card replaced the Account Card, which when used as a payment card ran up a balance to be repaid monthly. Quick Check users (and indeed anyone who wishes to have one) may purchase "trolley bags", large bags made of a synthetic material which can hold lots of items as well as fold down when not needed; essentially a more permanent version of a bag for life.
Employment practises
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 10-15% of a partner's yearly salary in a lump sum. After three months service they receive a discount card for Waitrose and John Lewis at a rate of 12%, and later the rate in John Lewis is increased to 25%. Due to lower margins, the partner discount rate in Waitrose remains static at 12%.
Main focuses of training for new Partners are health, 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. Partners will also, on request, carry any amount of shopping (again, within reason; it is quite unlikely they would carry a single bag of shopping unless the person buying it seems entirely incapable of doing so) to a customer's car for free. On occasion Waitrose employees have been found on USENET responding to complaints about the quality of the store's produce. *
The current uniform for male non-management partners is a green shirt with green and grey patterned necktie and trousers, whereas for females the uniform is a heavily patterned blouse and a choice of skirt or trousers. Section managers wear white shirts instead of green/patterned, and branch management usually wear suits.
The employee levels are: non-management partner, assistant section manager, section manager, department manager, branch manager, operations manager, director and finally at the top, the managing director, Steven Esom. Mr Esom's boss is the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.
Waitrose offer many different management courses which are among the best in the retail business. These include ones that fast track school leavers to become section managers within two years (called RMT) and a graduate course 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 46% owned by the John Lewis Partnership and offers home delivery of Waitrose groceries, ordered through the Internet. It has been reported that the Ocado brand is becoming very popular, with customers in store asking for Ocado carrier bags instead of Waitrose ones.
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 * 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. They are currently the only supermarket to sell loose Fairtrade bananas, sourced from the Windward Islands (in St Lucia).*
External links
Retailers of the United Kingdom | Employee-owned companies of the United Kingdom | Supermarkets of the United Kingdom | John Lewis Partnership | 1904 establishments
"Waitrose"