Waitrose to cut prices in fightback against M&S
WAITROSE is slashing prices on hundreds of products as it battles to win back middle- class shoppers from Marks & Spencer.
The supermarket chain began cutting prices yesterday on more than 200 ranges – including meat and fresh produce – in a £30 m investment. The announcement came days after rival M&S was tipped to overtake Waitrose.
Industry group Nielsen last week said M&S was neck and neck with Waitrose with each holding 3.8 pc of the market.
In 2021, Waitrose held a 4.2 pc share of the market and M&S just 3.2 pc.
Announcing the price cuts, Waitrose boss James Bailey said they would ‘make a real difference to our customers’ baskets’.
Prices will be cut by an average of 8 pc and up to 10 pc on dairy, fish, meat and poultry, ready meals and frozen lines.
But retail experts warned that Waitrose faces an uphill battle to stop customers turning their backs on it.
Jonathan De Mello, boss of the JDM Retail Consultancy, said the move to lower prices was a sign of Waitrose moving ‘in the right direction’ but added it has ‘lost its way and failed to move with the times’.
Even affluent Brits have found their household budgets strained amid increasing grocery prices and higher interest rates. And there has been fierce competition in the grocery sector, with heavyweights Tesco and Sainsbury’s also slashing prices to keep up with surging sales at discounters Aldi and Lidl. De Mello said: ‘They [Waitrose] have got a fairly affluent, aspirational customer base but even they like to get a good deal. Waitrose has failed to capture the public mood in a sense.’
He predicted that Waitrose could be overtaken by M&S in 2025 as the latter ploughs ahead with plans to open more than 100 ‘ bigger and better’ food stores by 2028.
‘Waitrose has been like a millstone around owner John Lewis’ neck,’ he added.
Declining market share at Waitrose is a problem for the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns the department store chain, and its outgoing chairman Sharon White.
The 95-year- old John Lewis Partnership has floundered in recent years, racking up a £234 m loss in 2022. Staff at Waitrose and John Lewis have also threatened to vote to strike amid fears of job losses. The partnership is considering axing 11,000 jobs after withholding its annual bonus last year.