Fashion At Waitrose
27-07-2011
Fashion At Waitrose
Well known Food & Home store Waitrose are looking to expand and fight off competition by venturing into the world of fashion. With a long term goal of opening 400 branches across the UK by 2017, Waitrose hope to double their revenues by 2016 to £8bn.
The company prides itself on differentiating from competitors by offering high quality food and excellent customer service. As a result, Waitrose has a reputation of being a more expensive store that is popular with the middle classes. But with fashion soon to be on their side, will the quality and popularity of the food being produced decrease? Or will the variety of products help boost their current place in the market?
With over 240 branches across the UK and a 4.3% share of the market, it is know wonder Waitrose is the 6th largest grocery retailer in the UK. Although Waitrose are better known for their Food & Home ranges, in recent years the company has opened five Waitrose Food & Home stores, which also sell schoolwear and fashion accessories.
The current Waitrose flagship store in Canary Wharf is set to sell clothing for the first time on the 8th of September this year. The new clothing offer is not expected to be Waitrose branded, with the retailer more likely to introduce tried and tested John Lewis labels.
Although details of plans for fashion lines within Waitrose are still under wraps, they did comment by saying:
“Our Canary Wharf branch is undergoing a transformation. In September we’re going to unveil our exciting and innovative new shop bringing together a host of new ranges and features over three floors. We’ll reveal more over the coming weeks, but we’re certain it’ll be worth the wait.”
Kantar Worldpanel reports that Waitrose currently has a 4% share of the food market up 0.1% from 2006, and additionally an 18% and 10% share of the organic food and fish markets respectively. Waitrose’s sales grew 9.8% in the 24 weeks to July. However, its market share is still only 4.3%, compared with Tesco’s 30%. Rival supermarkets, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s are all increasing their non-food ranges to grow sales and margins.
By Jennie May Thompson
