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Tag: Waitrose

  • John Lewis announces business focus renewal

    John Lewis announces business focus renewal

    UK-based company The John Lewis Partnership has announced a renewed business focus on differentiation and innovation.

    The company operates both the fashion, home and technology retailer John Lewis as well as the convenience-chain Waitrose.

    Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Sir Charlie Mayfield, said “as retail changes we need to tread a path that enables us to thrive as a business while building on the qualities that make us different.”

    “For us, the relentless pursuit of greater scale is not the right course.”

    The announcement release notes “clear plans to build on our strengths and to sharpen our points of difference in both Waitrose and John Lewis.

    “These plans include further investment in and development of unique products and service, together with a greater emphasis on own brand and innovation.”

    Waitrose will renew its focus on core customers, and plans to extend further the range of “exclusive products while continuing to raise the quality”, including a greater focus on health and well-being.

    The chain is also committing to a higher level of customer service with “an increase in the number of specialists to advise customers” in store.

    John Lewis will focus on three key areas; unique products, personal service and expansion into new services.

    “At the heart of the strategy is developing a curated and targeted assortment, which is increasingly unique to John Lewis,” reads the announcement.

    “Key to this is supercharging women’s fashion, acquiring new niche brands, securing exclusives with international brands and significantly growing design capability”.

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  • Aldi China opening store on Tmall

    Aldi China opening store on Tmall

    Aldi China plans to open a flagship store on Tmall, Alibaba’s B2C marketplace platform, within the next few months.

    The German supermarket chain has just launched a corporate website in China to signal its upcoming entry into Asia. This features a market-specific logo and Chinese name 奥乐奇, with the slogan “Handpicked for you”.

    Aldi shares which product categories it will offer the Chinese market: breakfast, snacking, wine, organic and cooking. Some of these products will be directly imported from Aldi’s suppliers in Australia.

    It was initially thought Aldi would launch its own independent website, reports Retail Analysis. Other grocery retailers that sell through Tmall include Sainsbury’s and Waitrose from the UK. Waitrose sells through Royal Mail’s Tmall site.

    While China’s online market is competitive, Aldi’s approach will give it time to understand Chinese shoppers and adapt its offer if necessary. And though many products will come from Australia, Aldi has a strong focus on local sourcing in many of its other markets.

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  • Sainsbury’s China doubling product range

    Sainsbury’s China doubling product range

    With the success of its trial with Tmall Global, Sainsbury’s China is doubling its product range.

    Citing “increasing demand”, the British supermarket retailer is about to release 100 more items, such as tea bags, coffee and pasta.

    “Chinese online shoppers are increasingly demanding high-quality international products,” says Sainsbury’s CFO John Rogers.

    “Many customers also want to replicate tastes and occasions they have enjoyed or heard about through international travel. Products to make a British breakfast and English afternoon tea have therefore proved hits.”

    Sainsbury’s started with Tmall last September, joining such British retailers as Asos, Burberry and fellow grocer Waitrose, which sell products on Alibaba’s Royal Mail online outlet.

    Rogers says the trial with Tmall has taught the company much about China’s digital market, including the importance of sales.

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  • Waitrose China launches via Alibaba

    Waitrose China launches via Alibaba

    Upmarket British grocery chain Waitrose has broken new ground in a deal with online marketplace Alibaba, opening the doors for it to export to China.

    Waitrose China will offer products and ranges to buyers across the mainland exclusively through theRoyal Mail Store on Tmall Global, Alibaba Group’s online marketplace. Waitrose arranged the deal through Avenue51, which runs Royal Mail’s store on the platform.

    Royal Mail promotes British companies, and Waitrose will be one of its highest-profile brands with a dedicated page on its online store. There will be 30 products initially, including biscuits, cereals, coffee, nuts and tea, plus beauty, baby and organic ranges.

    “The potential for Waitrose in China is huge, and though this is a relatively modest start it’s our ambition to see it become our biggest international business in the next three to five years,” says Waitrose commercial director Mark Williamson.

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  • Waitrose café replaces China cups and plates with paper crockery

    Waitrose café replaces China cups and plates with paper crockery

    Waitrose customers have furious to boycott a store over its plan to ditch china plates and replace them with paper crockery. Clients of a branch of the general store in Chichester, West Sussex, have apparently complained to administration in what has been named the most middle class row ever.

    As though that wasn’t sufficiently horrifying, the branch additionally picked to swap out its couches for wooden seats.

    The issues all started when the bistro moved from inside the Waitrose grocery store to the adjacent building, which previously housed a Costa espresso.

    Because of reasons of convenience, the café started to serve its hot beverages in paper glasses and replaced its “shocking” couches with simple to-clean plastic seats.

    A cafe staff part said that a dishwasher would need to be introduced at the new site before china mugs could be used.

    A Waitrose representative said: ‘The criticism of our clients is importent to us and the remarks we have gotten will shape any future arrangement.’

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  • Migros to sell private label in Japan

    Migros to sell private label in Japan

    Swiss retailer Migros is to sell private label products into two Japanese retail chains.

    Switzerland’s largest grocer, and one of the world’s 40 largest supermarket chains, is to sell lines to Lawson’s Seijo Ishii stores and Seiyu, which is Walmart’s Japan business.

    According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Migros will start with 16 premium products including Swiss Delice biscuits and iced tea, which will go on sale in 400 supermarkets trading under the Seiyu and Seijo Ishii banners.

    By 2020, Migros hopes to expand the range to 300 items, including desserts, snacks, cosmetics and skincare products, projecting sales of US$16 million annually.

    Retail research house IGD describes the move as “particularly surprising” for Seiyu, whose range already includes private label lines from Walmart’s own network, including Asda’s Extra Special wines.

    IGD describes Japan as “the most sophisticated private label market in Asia,” with strong players including Seven & I, Aeon, FamilyMart and Lawson.

    “These retailers are exploring the higher margin opportunities that premium private label ranges offer, focusing development around high quality, special ingredients and unique products.”

    Those ranges include Seven Gold and FamilyMart’s Platinum Line.

    But IGD says European influenced products are likely to appeal to shoppers’ increasingly cosmopolitan tastes, and the early line-up includes items which are mutually popular in the Swiss and Japanese markets: ice cream and iced tea.

    “Migros follows in the footsteps of European retailers Waitrose and Carrefour, whose private label products are already available in Japan through partnerships with Aeon.”

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