Waitrose is planning to open 100 convenience stores over the next five years as part of a £1bn-plus investment in new outlets and shop refurbishments.
The upmarket grocery chain is planning to unveil a revamped outlet in Finchley Road, north London, on Wednesday.
This will kick off a new phase of expansion with its first new store in six years in Hampton Hill, west London, by the end of this year.
James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose, said the group planned over five years to open up to four large supermarkets as well as the Little Waitrose shops, some of which may include relocations from existing sites.
He said older stores were also being refurbished to feature “more of what people expect from us and love such as counters, unequalled service and a lot more fresh food”.
Bailey said Waitrose was continuing to invest in technology to ensure there were no longer gaps on shelves after IT problems and a warehouse fire which led to stocking issues in 2022 and last year.
Speaking ahead of the reopening of the Finchley Road store, which will have larger fresh meat and fish counters and a new out-of-hours pickup point for online shoppers, Bailey said: “At the moment we are on a real positive upward trajectory.”
The new openings come as Waitrose has begun to regain market share after a tough period in which it came under pressure amid heavy competition from its rival Marks & Spencer and the cost of living crisis, in which shoppers sought out cheaper options.
In the three months to 4 August Waitrose recorded its strongest growth since November 2023, according to data from analysts at Kantar.
The uptick comes just ahead of the arrival of Jason Tarry, a veteran of Tesco, who next month will replace Sharon White as chair of Waitrose’s parent group, the John Lewis Partnership. He is expected to oversee a return to prioritising retail at the group after White’s strategy of diversification.
His arrival comes after a period of turbulence under White, a high-flying former civil servant who had only recently begun to turn JLP’s fortunes around after inheriting an overexpanded empire that delivered a series of punishing losses.
The group announced a return to profit in March but opted not to restore its annual bonus for workers who jointly own the group.
White also scrapped a target of moving towards 40% of JLP’s profits coming from non-retail business by 2030 after criticism for too much focus on projects such as building homes to rent and expanding financial services, while the group’s retail brands languished.
Bailey said: “The transformation of our Finchley Road store marks the next evolution of our journey to create a great shopping experience for our customers, underpinned by a high-quality product offering tailored to the local area, and the quality service we are synonymous with.
“In designing the store, we have taken time to understand how our customers like to shop, and used this knowledge to introduce new concepts that will be tested and rolled out nationally as we continue to work towards the Waitrose of the future.”
Innovations include a Hot Wok ready-to-eat meals counter, Crosstown doughnuts in the bakery section, a hatch to allow collections of fast-track online orders by the likes of Deliveroo outside the store’s opening hours, and the first UK supermarket to have a dedicated internal space for click-and-collect online orders.
The store will also house a dry aged beef cabinet and a dedicated parmesan section, reflecting local tastes which have made the Finchley Road store one its biggest sellers of the Italian cheese, accounting for almost 15% of Waitrose parmesan sales.
Source: theguardian.com
