Waitrose

Waitrose

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Supermarket
Founded	1904; 111 years ago (as Waite, Rose & Taylor) 1908; 107 years ago (as Waitrose Ltd.)
Founder	Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose, David Taylor
Headquarters	Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Number of locations	350
Area served	Great Britain
Key people	Rob Collins, Managing Director Tom Athron, Finance Director
Products	Food
Services	Supermarkets Online shopping
Revenue	£5,400.4 million
Operating income	£173.5 million
Net income	£123.3 million
Owner	John Lewis Partnership
Number of employees	91,000 (JLP)
Parent	John Lewis Partnership
Website	www.waitrose.com

Supermarkets

Waitrose is a chain of British supermarkets, which forms the food retail division of Britain's largest employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is located in Bracknell, Berkshire, England. As of February 2015, Waitrose has 350 branches across the United Kingdom, including 30 "little Waitrose" convenience stores, and a 5.1% share of the market, making it the sixth-largest grocery retailer in the UK.

Waitrose has been described by such newspapers as The Telegraph and The Guardian as having an "upmarket" reputation, although former managing director Mark Price suggested this is not the case when its prices are compared to those of rival Tesco.

The company has a royal warrant to supply groceries, wine, and spirits to Queen Elizabeth II and, as of 1 January 2011, to Prince Charles.

Founded in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David 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", from the remaining founders' names, was adopted. In 1937, the company, consisting of ten stores and 160 employees, was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership. In 1944, the partnership purchased the South Essex grocery business Schofield and Martin, which had 12 shops in its chain. Schofield and Martin's Southend High Street store was converted into a self-service store in 1951 becoming the first supermarket run by Waitrose. The Schofield and Martin name was used until the 1960s when the stores were rebranded Waitrose.

In 1955, the chain opened its first Waitrose supermarket in Streatham, London and continued to expand throughout London and the South East of England during the 1960s. In the 1970s, Waitrose opened branches in Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire. On 16 June 2016 the store's most southerly branch opened in Truro, Cornwall.