Introduction
Waitrose is a supermarket based in the United Kingdom. It is owned by John Lewis partnership that is a British retailer and is valued as one of its food division. The supermarket has record a tremendous growth in the UK market over the recent years. It had about 228 branches across the UK by June 2010 and the number is expected to grow with time.
Waitrose is the 6th largest grocery retailer in the UK and has a current market share of about 3.45% of the respective market in UK. The company offers quality food and customer service which gives it a competitive edge over its competitors. The customer especially the middle class people are ready to pay for the quality foods and services they get. The company is regarded as being expensive but people still go for the quality (Kotler, 2001, 8).
The company was started in 1904 as part of John Lewis partnership in the south west of the UK. The company has a vast work force and employs over 27,000 persons. The stores are conveniently located and are of medium size and other are of small size. It has been recording a strong turnover and pretax profit. In 2002, for instance, it recorded 9.7% increase from the previous year and 60.1 million pounds.
The company’s performance seems to continue strengthening over the coming years. The long-term goal of the company is to open many branches across UK. For instance, by 2017, the company is targeting to open 400 branches in the United Kingdom. By the year 2016, the company is also aiming at increasing its revenue to 8 billion pounds.
Waitrose SWOT analysis
This paper aims at analyzing the SWOT analysis of Waitrose Company. The SWOT analysis analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the company is exposed to. The company has a very strong position in the United Kingdom and has the opportunities to grow even further. Under the strengths, the focus is made on the qualities or team that the business has over others businesses in the same industry.
The weaknesses focuses on the disadvantages that the company has compared to others operating in the same industry. The opportunities are the chances that the company has in the external environment to expand its sales or profit within the given environment. The companies also face threats from its competitors and other elements in the environment that may cause problems in to the business.
Waitrose marketing strategies gives it a strong edge over its competitors. For instance, the company focuses on the differentiation strategy for the product and customers. It offers own brand quality products that satisfies a big market share. The company has high specialization in quality products that includes fine wines and fresh foods that earns a high profit margin for the company.
The Waitrose portal Waitrose.com is a strong site that is efficient in marketing the company products. It has variety of foods advertised in it and customers are able to learn more about them (McGoldrick, 2002, 5). The distribution of distribution of Waitrose products has also been enhanced by the collaboration of the company and the online grocer Ocado through its site, Ocado.com. The site for waitrose offers both the product information and also the purchase opportunities to the online customers (Grande, 2000, 22).
The SWOT analysis for waitrose is summarized in the table below. It is divided into internal factors that include strengths and external factors that include opportunities and threats.
SWOT analysis table
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