Waitrose is one of the UK's leading food retailers and forms part of the John Lewis Partnership, which has a unique system of employee co-ownership. All 69,000 employees ('Partners'), roughly 40,000 of them at Waitrose, have a say in how the business is run and a share in its profits.
Waitrose, now over 100 years old, operates more than 190 supermarkets, supported by four distribution centres, and offers around 40,000 core product lines. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire.

Waitrose also owns and manages the 4,000-acre Leckford Estate in Hampshire.

Waitrose's gross sales in 2007 rose by 6.8% to just under £4 billion (£3,950 million), over half the Partnership's total sales of £6.8 billion.


For information about the Partnership's other businesses, visit www.johnlewis.com and www.greenbee.com.

All data in this report covers the period February 2007 to January 2008 unless otherwise stated.

Front cover: British-grown organic open portabella mushrooms.