Waitrose aims to triple its sales in the next ten years as part of an ambitious growth plan, its managing director has revealed.
The upmarket grocer will invest £300m annually to open 20 new stores per year and target strong growth in its online business, Mark Price said.
Owned by John Lewis, Waitrose’s sales last year were £5.3bn. It remains a long way behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrison’s but has been growing rapidly. Along with discounters such as Lidl and Aldi, it has been gaining market share, although the big four still dominate and account for more than three quarters of sales.
Mr Price told the Mail on Sunday: “People say to me, you’ve had a good year. But the reality is we have been outperforming our competitors for four and a half years now. “We have grown at five, six, seven per cent ahead of the market. We have got a great combination of value for money, aspirational quality and innovative products.”
The company’s online sales are also growing strongly. In the first half sales were up more 50pc following investment in Waitrose.com, including a new “dark store” operation in south London, due to open next year to serve digital customers only.
Waitrose is now pushing its own brand online. It also supplies groceries to Ocado, in a contract due to run until 2020.
Ocado announced another tie-up earlier this year with Morrison’s, however, and Mr Price has since suggested Waitrose will need a “new way of working” with the company following negotiations between their lawyers.
