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OUR CUSTOMERS

Value, quality and choice

To attract, retain and deepen relationships with customers, we build their trust and confidence in our reputation for quality, price and service.

As co-owners of our business, great customer service is something we take pride in. Our Partners’ dedication to service as a part of their everyday work is highly valued by our customers. For example, in 2010 to date:

• Waitrose has been named ‘Britain’s favourite supermarket’ in an online food shopping survey by consumer organisation Which?, voted ‘top food and grocery retailer’ in a poll of 6,000 shoppers conducted by retail analysts Verdict Research and named ‘Best supermarket’ for the sixth consecutive year at the Good Housekeeping Food Awards.
• John Lewis has been voted ‘Britain’s favourite retailer’ in the same Verdict poll, coming first for customer satisfaction, and topped the overall and non-food retail categories in the Institute for Customer Service’s UK Customer Service Index (UKCSI). Johnlewis.com was also named Best Online Retailer at the annual Which? Awards.

Reaching new customers

There are millions of potential customers without access to one of our shops, and we are keen to explore all the possibilities for making our products available to more of them. For example, John Lewis has opened its first John Lewis at home store in Poole and a second in Croydon is due to open in August this year. It has also developed its online presence with a considerably enhanced fashion offer. In total, Johnlewis.com took £393 million last year, a £60 million (18.2%) increase on 2008/09. We also foresee significant opportunities in the food-to-go sector, so we have opened new Waitrose convenience shops and are utilising partnerships with Welcome Break, Shell and Boots (see About us).

As part of our due diligence in establishing such partnerships, we work to ensure that we are satisfied that the third party is committed to conducting its business in an economically, environmentally and socially responsible way; that we believe its values and principles reflect its commitment to being a responsible business; and that it can provide evidence that this commitment is integral to the way it does business. We are also keen to ensure that these are compatible with our own principles. To further strengthen our approach, additional work is being done to develop the assessment of new business partnerships and investment opportunities in relation to CSR.

Nutrition

Waitrose has already met the Food Standards Agency’s original 2010 targets for salt reduction in all categories. We supported their 2010 campaign, ‘Saturated Fats Made Simple’, with in-store posters and a low-salt menu in our Partner dining rooms.

Considerable work has taken place on saturated fat with a 6.4% reduction in the desserts category, a 12.7% reduction in rich tea biscuits and a 29.7% reduction in our biscuit for cheese assortment. We have also achieved a 19% reduction in sandwiches and switched to semiskimmed milk in our coffee shops. Work has also been undertaken to look at appropriate portion sizes.

We continue to provide nutrition and health information through our Nutrition Advice Service and recipe cards, and have extended our on-pack ‘traffic-light’ labelling to include percentage GDA (Guideline Daily Amounts).


Waitrose’s reputation for freshness, quality, safety and provenance, and our ‘Price Commitment’, ensures we offer consistent value for money without compromising on our standards and sourcing integrity. This is reinforced by our 1,400 own-brand ‘essential Waitrose’ products. John Lewis similarly provides excellent service and quality products that are responsibly sourced, and is committed to being ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’, our trading philosophy since 1925.


John Lewis plans to update its customer communication in 2010 to demonstrate more clearly to customers the care it takes in selecting products and the work undertaken within its supply chain and local communities.


(Photo captioned: Four days before Christmas, more than 100 customers and Partners were provided with food and a bed for the night in John Lewis High Wycombe after heavy snow gridlocked local roads.)