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Engaging with our stakeholders

We believe that being a responsible retailer means respecting the interests of all our stakeholders. This involves listening and actively responding to their concerns and acting on their behalf, as well as being honest in our expectations and intentions and reporting our performance fairly. Understanding the interests of our stakeholders helps inform our thinking and feeds into our CSR risk and opportunity assessment, which in turn shapes our CSR vision, programmes and commitments. Below, we outline some of the ways we actively involve our key stakeholders.


Partners

WHY WE ENGAGE

Because our Partners are all owners of the business and share in its success, they get to have a say in how the business is run, as well as an equal percentage share in its profits.

Giving our Partners a ‘voice’ is central to the principles of co-ownership and we engage the views and opinions of our Partners through a number of key channels.

Our Partners also have an ‘external voice’ through their vital role as advocates for our business and all that we do.

HOW WE ENGAGE

• Conduct an annual Partner Survey
• Hold AGMs and other meetings to foster loyalty and understanding
• Provide printed publications, including letters pages in the Gazette and the Chronicle, hold regular roadshows and presentations, including video presentations by the Chairman and Managing Directors and provide online communication tools – such as the ‘Ask Mark’ (Mark Price) section on our intranet
• Through Councils, forums and committees at local, divisional and Partnership level
• CSR governance groups

OUTCOMES

90% of Partners responded to the 2009 Partner survey. Following this, individual branches are looking at what the scores are saying and are working to understand what actions can be taken at a local level as well as what can be fed into our divisional and Partnership Councils.

2010 will see the launch of a revised Partner survey to reflect the new Partner Strategy Commitments (see page 15). A number of Partner focus groups have been held, as well as invaluable feedback gained from the Partnership Council to ensure the revised survey is easy to understand and resonates with Partners.

Questions raised by our Partnership Council have focused on our work to reduce carrier bags and how we collaborate on CSR across our business. Our Partners are also keen to understand what tangible action they need to take to support our CSR commitments and how we can arm them better to respond to customer enquiries on sustainability issues. We will be addressing these points in 2010.

Our letters pages in the Gazette and other internal magazines continue to provide a means for Partners to express any view on the Partnership. These are a keystone of the Partnership’s open culture, playing a vital role in keeping Partners informed as co-owners of the business and in holding management to account. Letters are handled in a way unique to the Partnership, allowing Partners greater freedom of expression than would generally be permitted elsewhere.


Customers

WHY WE ENGAGE

We aim to deal honestly with our customers and secure their loyalty and trust by providing outstanding choice, value and service. We want to hear what our customers think and how we can do things better. Only by gathering feedback on our performance can we maintain and raise our standards of customer service and keep our customers satisfied.

HOW WE ENGAGE

• Focus groups
• Customer satisfaction and opinion research and surveys
• Feedback through customer service teams and online feedback forms
• Customer forums on waitrose.com

OUTCOMES

Focus groups have told us that the issues that matter most to our customers are reducing packaging, improving the nutritional value of food and responsible sourcing, both in terms of the standards in the supply chain and the sustainability of our products.

We are already making good progress in these areas. We communicate our policies and positions via customer-facing websites, magazines and other instore point-of-sale material, as well as through our Partners. We are working with our marketing teams to further develop our customer communications.