Waitrose to sell shortbread and tea to China

WAITROSE is to export its products to China for the first time in a deal with internet giant Alibaba.

The grocer has agreed a deal through Chinese operator Avenue 51 which will see it ship items to China including Earl Grey tea and shortbread biscuits.

This is the first time the middle-class favourite has shipped to China since it began exporting 20 years ago. Its first overseas export market was Japan and China is its 59th country.

It is also the first time it has exported to a country only via a website, rather than through physical shops.

It will initially sell 30 products but will grow this by the end of the year. Tea, biscuits and baby and children’s products are very popular in China so it will also be selling ranges including Waitrose Duchy Organic, and its own label skin cream called Baby BottomButter.

Waitrose, which has 346 shops in the UK, will launch the website on Monday. Commercial director Mark Williamson, said: ‘The potential for Waitrose in China is huge and although it’s a relatively modest start it’s our ambition to see it become our biggest international business in the next three to five years.’

The launch is being handled by Chinese internet specialist Avenue51 which has already worked with 50 British brands. British luxury brand Burberry has a store on Alibaba’s Tmall – a type of online shopping centre which hosts shops for hundreds of brands. The Royal Mail ‘shop’ is run in partnership with Avenue51. It will be through this Royal Mail tie-up that Waitrose will sell its products.

Other British brands on the site include handbag company Cambridge Satchel Company, bike maker Brompton Bicycles and gift shop Halcyon Days. It is the first grocer to open a shop on the Royal Mail branded website.

Richard Snowdon, international director at Royal Mail, said: ‘Our Tmall Global shop front brings British brands together with hundreds of millions of shoppers in China.’