Waitrose CEO Mark Price has said the supermarket is aiming to double its grocery market share by matching prices and opening more stores outside southern England.
At a press conference at the new John Lewis store near the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, Price said the upmarket retailer could increase its market share from 4.5 per cent to 10 per cent.
“There are 5 million people who shop in Waitrose today because they have access. If you look at the customer profile there are another 6 million customers who should be Waitrose customers but just don’t have access to our shops,” he said.
Waitrose increased investment on product innovation and price matching its competitors by 30 per cent in the year to January 28, at a cost of £7m.
This sent the supermarket’s operating profit down 5.2 per cent to £260.6m, Price said.
However, he added that operating profit rose by 2.2 percent in the second half over the year after declining 13.8 percent in the first half.
Waitrose customers use the stores “for special occasions or top-up and those customers need assurance they can load their basket with all the brands and it’s not going to cost them more,” Price said.
“What we’re never going to try to do is to make Waitrose like the other supermarkets.”
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