Despite challenges posed by rising costs and tax hikes, Waitrose is continuing one of its “biggest periods of expansion” in history, with plans for a new branch in Essex and dozens more to follow. The British supermarket chain has submitted a planning application to convert a unit in Chelmsford into a new Waitrose Limited store in the city’s Village Retail Park. It comes amid wider plans to open 100 “convenience stores”, smaller branches focusing on basic groceries and food to go, by 2030 despite an uncertain economic backdrop.
The brand’s parent company, the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), recorded a substantial half-year loss in September, with an overall deficit of £88 million, something it attributed to a hike of National Insurance contributions and packaging costs. While Waitrose has closed several stores in recent years to save money, the group insisted that investments in supply chains, store branches and technology had since helped to boost customer numbers, with stronger sales figures expected in the latter half of the year regardless of the “challenging” context.
Waitrose previously said the shift towards smaller convenience stores was a response to changing customer habits and demand, with the first branch of its kind opened in London’s Hampton Hill last year.
The £1 billion, multi-year investment programme will also include extensive upgrades of existing sites, with recent renovations including London branches in Marylebone and Clerkenwell.
Both shops now feature redesigned bakery and fruit and vegetable sections and a new wine selection, while the Marylebone store also has a dedicated dry aged beef counter.
Speaking ahead of the reopening of a refurbished Finchley Road store in the northwest of the capital last year, James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose, suggested shoppers chose Waitrose for its “counters, unequalled service and fresh food”.
“At the moment we are on a real positive upward trajectory,” he added. “[The store upgrades] mark the next evolution of our journey to create a great shopping experience for our customers, underpinned by 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.”
JLP chair Jason Tarry admitted that consumer confidence was “subdued” in anticipation of the Chancellor’s upcoming Autumn Budget, but added the group is expecting the Christmas period to deliver a major boost to overall annual profits.
“We’ll focus on what we can control,” he told the BBC. “We are a second-half business, no doubt about that. All of our profit is in the second half [of the year].”