Waitrose - History

History

Founded in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor, Waitrose began as a small grocery store, Waite, Rose & Taylor, in Acton, West London. In 1908, two years after David Taylor had left the business, the name "Waitrose", from the remaining founders' names, was adopted. In 1937, the company, consisting of 10 stores and 160 employees, was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership.

In 1955, the chain opened its first supermarket in Streatham, London and continued to expand throughout London and the South East during the 1960s. In the 1970s, Waitrose opened branches in Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

In 1981, counter service was introduced for fresh meat, fish and cheese, and in 1983, Waitrose became the first major supermarket chain to sell organic food.

In 2000, Waitrose purchased 11 stores from rival Somerfield.

In order for Morrisons to meet competition regulations following its acquisition of Safeway, it was required to sell 52 of the Safeway stores. The first batch of 19 stores were sold to Waitrose in 2004, and in August 2005, it purchased a further five Safeway stores. This took the firm as far north as Durham (now closed), fitting with its long term strategy to evolve into a national retailer. In December 2005, Waitrose also bought another store at Biggin Hill, Kent, from Morrisons. In July 2006, Waitrose announced it had purchased another six stores from Morrisons and also a former Safeway regional distribution centre in Aylesford, Kent.

In June 2008, Waitrose announced the acquisition of four Woolworths store sites for conversion to Waitrose branches in Chiswick, Battersea (Clapham Junction), Edgware Road (Marylebone) and Chapel Market, Islington. All these stores are now trading.

In January 2009, Waitrose announced that they had acquired 13 sites from The Co-operative Group. One site in Melksham, Wiltshire was bought from Somerfield and opened on 18 March 2010.

The firm signed a deal with Alliance Boots which will see Boots operating branded pharmacies in some stores; in return Boots stores will sell Waitrose food products. The partnership between the companies ended in 2012 having been deemed unsuccessful, which lead to Boots replacing Waitrose products with items sourced from Irish retailer Musgrave's SuperValu chain.

In September 2009, Duchy Originals, the struggling organic food business started by Prince Charles was rescued by Waitrose, which has agreed to an exclusive deal to stock the range, and to pay a small fee to charity. In return, Prince Charles has graced a number of Waitrose stores, and dined with senior Waitrose executives and their spouses. In August 2010, the Duchy range was relaunched with many new lines under the Duchy Originals from Waitrose brand.

In 2010, Waitrose announced the acquisition of five supermarkets in the Channel Islands, three on Jersey and two on Guernsey, from Sandpiper CI, subject to the agreement of regulatory authorities. Waitrose has already been supplying the stores over the last two years with over 3,000 Waitrose own label products. The stores began reopening as Waitrose from February 2011.

Wednesday 4 August 2011 Waitrose opened a new store in Littlehampton, and in October 2011, the smaller of the two Safeway stores in Canterbury was converted to Waitrose.

In October 2011, Waitrose opened a Fulfilment Centre in West London as part of its Waitrose.com Online Delivery Service. Previously its online shopping services was provided by certain Waitrose Branches.