The John Lewis Partnership has announced it is to spend £134 million on refurbishing its chain of 143 Waitrose supermarkets.
This will be the biggest single investment programme in its history with money going on its new corporate identity, tills, refrigeration units, self-scanning tills, its home delivery service and will also see the group devoting more space to fresh foods.
There are also plans to expand approximately a fifth of its existing stores. If it obtains successful planning permission for the extensions, costs will run even higher.
Waitrose is planning to open a further eight supermarkets and its sales and marketing director Mark Price said that it also hopes to pick up some Safeway stores from that chain's eventual new owner. He said: “It's difficult to say how many stores we would like but we are interested in acquiring stores in those areas which fit our demographics.”
Same-store sales at Waitrose grew by 5.4 per cent for the six months ending August 1. Price predicts that total sales will grow by 10 per cent for the full year to £2.6 billion.
