Waitrose: welcome new venture
Published:11-May-2009
By Datamonitor staff writer
Following the success of Moto's partnership with Marks & Spencer and its own recent ventures into smaller store formats, Waitrose opened the first of two stores at Welcome Break service areas on May 1, 2009. In light of the current trend for top-up shopping and heightened demand for quality convenience products, Waitrose's timely entry into the motorway service market is expected to be a success.
Waitrose partners with Welcome Break to open its first store at a motorway service area in the UK.
Waitrose has opened its smallest store, at 2,500 square feet, at one of the UK's busiest service areas, Welcome Break's Oxford services on the M40 motorway. The company is due to open a similar outlet on May 15, 2009, on the M25. The new venture will create around 50 new jobs and, if successful, will also benefit BP, which operates the petrol stations at both sites.
The grocery retailer joins a string of prominent high street names, such as Marks & Spencer and WH Smith, which have successfully entered the motorway services network. Indeed, WH Smith reported a growth in sales in its travel division of 17% in the six months to February 28, 2009, and Marks & Spencer's partnership with Moto is being developed further. Such growth in the travel retail sector has prompted Welcome Break to present an alternative to its current offering, which includes Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The initiative is in line with Waitrose's move towards smaller format convenience stores, and will allow it to reach a much larger customer base. The two new service areas alone are expected to give the retailer access to a further nine million customers. The new motorway store format will offer a relatively small range of about 850 products, comprising takeaway snacks and top-up products including milk, bread and ready meals.
The UK is one of the fastest growing top-up markets, with a Datamonitor survey revealing that 36% of consumers have become more reliant on top-up shopping in the last six months, with only 13% saying they were less reliant. This compares with markets such as Germany where there has been a net decline in those who feel reliant on this type of purchase. Smaller store formats are popular with top-up shoppers, with 34.4% of UK consumers stating that there is too much choice in larger stores. Furthermore, 49.7% of all top-up shops are conducted by 25-49 year olds, who are the key demographic of the service station sector. Therefore, Waitrose's entry into motorway services has come at an ideal time to take advantage of increased demand for quality convenience products in out-of-town locations.
