Assignment sobre waitrose (inglés)

INDEX
1. Aims 2
2. Introduction 2
3. Methods 2
4. Findings 2
- History and Evolution 2
- Products & Services 4
- Advertisements 5
- Bad press 5
5. Conclusions 6
6. References 6

1. Aims
In this report, we aim to give the readers information about English’s supermarket chain Waitrose and a comparison between these supermarkets and Spanish supermarkets, discussingtheir similarities and differences.

2. Introduction
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. It was founded in 1904 by 3 partners.
It has a 4.3% share of the market, making it the 6th largest grocery retailer in the UK. The company attemptsto differentiate itself from its competitors by offering high quality food and customer service. As a result, it has the reputation of being more expensive and is popular with the middle classes.

3. Methods
The information we have used to write this report has been acquired by researching in numerous internet sites such as Wikipedia and Waitrose’s webpage. The full list of references can be found at point6 in this assignment.

4. Findings
First we will introduce you to the company’s history and evolution, then we will describe their main products and services, followed by the advertising campaign analysis and last but not least, we have researched about some bad opinions about the company and their services.
* History and Evolution
Founded in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose andDavid Taylor, Waitrose began as a small grocery store, Waite, Rose & Taylor, in Acton, west London. In 1908, two years after David Taylor had left the business, the name "Waitrose" (aportmanteau of the remaining founders' names) was adopted. In 1937, the company, consisting of 10 stores and 160 employees, was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership.
Waitrose hasn’t stopped expanding since thebeginning and currently there are 244 supermarkets. The company has a long term goal of opening 400 branches across the UK by 2017 and doubling its revenue to £8bn by 2016 and plans to expand its presence in the convenience store sector.
The following table shows the retailer’s performance in July 2009 and July 2010 of the main supermarkets in the UK.

The next graph shows the growth of Waitrose’smarket share from 1984 to 2006:

- Products & Services

Waitrose, as every other famous supermarket, have their own brand with cheaper prices, but they have also launched a line of products called “Essential Waitrose” that feature simple and cheap white-based packaking to reduce costs. 1.4000 new and existing products have been rebranded with this name.
In Waitrose supermarkets, you can findsome departments that are not in Spanish supermarkets, like a cooking department with books, tools and recipes or a flower and plants department where you can order bouquets for a ceremony, for example.
Something common in the main supermarkets in the UK, Waitrose included, is that you can buy Tobacco and Medicines, that’s unthinkable in Spain because the law ask for some special requirements tosell that kind of products.
Waitrose’s strongest point is in the services they offer, they have several deals with other strong companies in the UK like a franchise deal with Welcome Break service stations. In Spain there isn’t any supermarket that has a service station inside, but you can find this service in Carrefour, which is bigger than a supermarket.
They also have a deal with Boots  whichwill see Boots operating branded pharmacies and retailing health and beauty products through Waitrose stores; in return Boots stores will sell Waitrose food products. As stated before, this can’t be done in Spanish supermarkets, since the law doesn’t allow you to.
Waitrose operates its own delivery service, WaitroseDeliver, which is only available in certain stores, delivering goods ordered...