Dame Sharon White, the chair of Waitrose owner John Lewis Partnership, has insisted that the business is “back on track” and said that the convenience sector is a top expansion priority for the supermarket.
White told The Telegraph: “We’re back on track and much more fit for the future. This is a launch pad for the next phase of growth for the business and to be frank we’re in as solid a position as we could be given the five years we’ve had.”
The chair, who is set to to stand down in September as she hands over the reins to former Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry, said she was “looking forward to what Waitrose is going to be doing over the next two to three years”.
The supermarket is set open its first new shops in almost 10 years as John Lewis Partnership ups investment this year by 70% to £542m.
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White told The Telegraph that the convenience sector will be its top priority for expansion. She said: “We are under-represented in convenience. We’re basically driving convenience through online. I think having a bigger presence for Waitrose locally and with more local ranges is a massive opportunity for us.”
Waitrose is also set to refurbish 80 of its stores as part of a near £1bn investment over the next three years and also open its first new shops in almost 10 years.
White said that the retailer was working out “how we get the right balance between service and productivity” at the revamped stores. However, she promised: “You won’t see Waitrose stores completely stripped of partners and relying on self-checkout.”
3 Comments. Leave new
The lady is mad.
Well somebody is living in cloud cuckoo land, we went through realignment at Stourbridge, lost some very valuable partners with great experience to VR and now they’re trying to replace them!, BDOM is a complete shambles and simply does not work for the branch, too few partners in the day, stock not being worked like it should, total embarrassment at times when you look at the shelves, hope you’re proud of yourself whoever dream this up!!
She is Indeed. Roll on the new ex Tesco boss.