The Main Aims And Objectives Of Waitrose

The business I have chosen for this investigation is ASDA superstore. This is a large chain of supermarkets throughout Britain which retails clothes, merchandise, food, and electronics etc. in this part of my course work I will briefly explain the aims and objectives of ASDA I will also explain the external factors which affect the aims and objectives of the business however I will first be talking about a brief history of ASDA.

However, this is not the case for many other businesses as they see recession as actually creating an opportunity for making long-term profits. The recession has helped businesses to come out stronger than ever. Waitrose had seen sales fall as customers chose to buy from rivals such as Asda/Tesco. In response to that Waitrose launched its 'essential Waitrose' range in an attempt to win over customers that have abandoned the chain in favour of cheaper outlets such as Asda or even Lidl and Aldi. Waitrose has woken up to the recession and they realized that they need to make their value message clearer. The performance of Waitrose,

But the social factor is affecting on the supermarket and because of its customers. People who shop in Waitrose are people middle age or older. It is fact that the population in UK is ageing and `this trend is projected to continue`. The increase in the number of old people is increase in the number of the Waitrose`s customers. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=949 accessed 21/03/2011

Tesco Plc is a Public Limited Company who securities and shares are included in the stock exchange and list of different countries. In UK, companies like Tesco Plc are registered under the companies Act 1980 and its shared are offered to public in regards of limited liability. In addition, Tesco is associated with retail sector that carries out a majority business of the company and contribute their share in country’s economy to a huge scale. Apart from the retail sector, Tesco Plc faced tough competition all over the world from companies like Wal-Mart, Asda, Sainsbury, and others. Although, Tesco is not in dominating position in the current retail market in the UK, but the company is one of the biggest retail companies working in the UK, North America, Asia, Europe and other. The company

Morrison’s is a food retailer which was established in 1899. Morrison’s started off as a stall at a local market in Bradford run by William Morrison and has since grown to be the UK’s fourth largest food retailer. Morrison’s aims to, “attract, motivate and develop people to ensure that Morrison’s becomes the ‘food specialist for everyone’”. In addition to Morrison’s being a supermarket it also offers a range of other services; cafés, recycling, dry cleaning, photo printer, petrol station and pharmacy. Morrison’s is highly customer orientated as they try to provide the best service to their customers by providing them with high quality and reasonably priced items.

John Lewis Partnership owns the leading retail business of Waitrose and John Lewis, as well as John Lewis Broadband (provided by Plusnet plc) and John Lewis Insurance services (John , 2016). .

The UK supermarket industry is a very competitive and profitable industry. It is made up of four main players with significant share of the market, and then various smaller companies who focus on smaller niches in the market such as the bottom of the market discounters and the top of the line speciality stores. It is an interesting market and this report evaluates the attractiveness of the industry using Porter’s five forces model with an insight into how market nicher Waitrose sustains a competitive advantage. Next this report looks at how major player Sainsbury’s successfully competes against its rivals using differentiation strategies, and analyses current consumer trends and problems can effect this industry.

The objective of this report is to analyse the UK supermarkets industry for John Lewis in order to seek their competitive advantage in the market. This report is to be presented to the Board of Directors of John Lewis Partnership.

Suppliers – suppliers are stakeholders in the company and have a big influence because they will want to inform the company if there are any new products for them to have in store. This way supplier will be making more money by selling their products and Waitrose can become exclusive stockist. The suppliers will want to know whether the company is selling their products, and if not why. They will also want to find out whether Waitrose have any other suppliers for the same product.

Supermarkets also claim that their economic leverage enables them to benefit local communities by building stores and providing social and economic regeneration packages. One such example is Linwood, on the outskirts of Glasgow (Allen, 2009). The closure of a main employer left the centre of Linwood economically scarred. A proposal to build a new Tesco supermarket in the area and attract other special retailers to the ailing Town Centre was met with enthusiasm by local residents. Supporters of supermarkets advocate that everyone within the supply chain (customers, communities and suppliers) benefit from supermarkets, a concept Dennis Wrong terms the “positive sum game” (Allen, 2009).

Within these stores, there are many different departments and groups of job roles including sales floor customer assistants, store operations, section managers and store managers (Careers.marksandspencer.com, 2016). Marks and Spencer are devoted to providing great value and services to their shareholders and customers within their business, which suggests customer service is a key part within their organisation (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2016). The strategic direction of Marks and Spencer is to prioritise profitability as well as growing the business, alongside improving performance in all areas of the organisation (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2014). This essay will focus on sales floor customer assistant departments within Marks and Spencer.

TAXATION: The Waitrose is imposed taxes on its business profit and over selling the goods to its customer. This can even affect its strategic plan if there is a fluctuation.

Ocado, as the world’s largest dedicated online grocery retailer and has been voted as the best online supermarket in the UK since its foundation in early 2000 by Tim Steiner, Jason Gissing and Jonathan Fairman. (Which?, 2014) With rapid expansion of the business, it develops and operates a unique business model which only focuses on customers’ online shopping and emphasises the partnership with Waitrose. There are a range of products offered in Ocado, not only for its own brand groceries from the Waitrose supermarket chain but also there has a selection of name brand groceries and other items, such as flowers, toys and magazines, a range of Carrefour 's products are sold via Ocado website as well. Ocado is aiming at improving the customers’ shopping experience and changing the way people shop for groceries. Aligning the interests of customers, investors and stakeholders to deliver a long term shareholder value, that is the strategic objective of Ocado Group plc. (Ocado, 2014) This report will undertake a detailed analysis using financial ratios from an evaluation of its profitability, financial position and cash flow to formulate an overall view of the company’s financial performance and position from its financial statements.

The organisation I chose for this assignment is called J Sainsbury plc. J Sainsbury plc is one of the world's leading retailers, playing a part in the lives of 15 million customers a week. John James and Mary established Sainsbury Supermarkets in 1869. Sainsbury's Supermarkets employs over 138,000 people. Of these 70 per cent are part time and 30 per cent are full time. 58 percent of colleagues are women. A large Sainsbury's Supermarket offers over 23,000 products - 40% of these are Sainsbury's own brand. Sainsbury's serve nearly 10 million customers at 432 stores throughout the UK each week. Of these stores, 17 are in Scotland, nine in Wales and seven in Northern Ireland. Nearly 60 percent of

It was a key decision to feature partners in the campaign, which uses them as a point of difference, distinguishing us from our rivals (www.guardian.co.uk ). The targeted customers of their products are richer class. The most important reason that they have loyal customers is because of the quality they provide. The customers of Waitrose believe in the company, such that even if they get the same goods cheaper in other stores (Tesco, Azda) they will still stick to Waitrose. In the product line the fruits and vegetables they put on the market are priced at a premium. “For anyone who enjoys food and can afford to pay a bit extra, it is easy to understand why the chain has built a following”. (www.guardian.co.uk )