Page 40 External recognition


External recognition
External awards, accolades and other benchmarking measures not only give Partners a sense of recognition for a job well done, they also help us as a business to regularly check that we're responding to material issues in the right way. Below, we highlight a selection of our achievements in 2007 and 2008.

(Logo: Business and Community Awards 2008 Education)
(Logo: Business and Community Awards 2008 Supply Chain)
(Logo: Business and Community Awards 2008 Rural Action)
(Logo: Business and Community Awards 2008 Healthy Communities)
(Logo: Business and Community Companies That Count 2007)

A Big Tick in the box
Waitrose was awarded three Business in the Community Awards for Excellence ('Big Ticks') in 2008 for our Waitrose Education programme; our local and regional sourcing initiative; and responsible sourcing and the Waitrose Foundation. The Partnership also picked up an award for the Golden Jubilee Trust. Big Ticks are awarded to companies demonstrating excellence in their responsible business practices and a positive impact on society as well as their business.


Index linked
For the third year running, the Partnership was named a Platinum company by scoring more than 95% in the BITC Corporate Responsibility Index, the UK's leading benchmark of responsible businesses. Results were published in The Times' Companies That Count supplement in May 2008.


Another satisfied customer
In January 2008,Waitrose was named the top high street retailer for customer service, scoring 87% in an annual Which? survey of 11,000 shoppers, and came second for customer satisfaction in retail analysts Verdict's poll of over 6,000 shoppers. Waitrose also enjoyed success in the National Customer Satisfaction Index conducted by the Institute of Customer Service, topping the supermarket sector with an 'outstanding' 85%. The survey asked 6,000 people to rate companies for professionalism, complaint handling, competence and friendliness.


Pleased to 'B' green
Waitrose was ranked top for the second year running with a 'B' rating, alongside Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer, in the National Consumer Council's Green Supermarket report in October 2007.


League leaders
Waitrose came joint top (with Marks & Spencer) in the 2007 Marine Conservation Society's Sustainable Seafood Supermarket League Table and our growing reputation for animal welfare has again been recognised by the 2007 RSPCA Good Business Awards judges, who placed us top in the 'supermarket' category.
Food, glorious food!

Waitrose was named 'favourite supermarket' in the fourth annual Good Housekeeping Food Awards, which honour exceptional contributions to the British food industry, and our own-brand products won in 13 of the 18 categories they were entered for at the 2007 Quality Food Awards.


Going for Gold
In June 2008,Waitrose won the Consumer Initiative of the Year title at The Grocer Gold Awards for its British Farming Counts initiative, which includes television adverts, 'Meet the Farmer' events and the 'Fair Trade for British Farmers' campaign.


More information can be found on www.waitrose.com
More information and detailed data can be found on www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk

See the John Lewis CSR report for more information on our sister company