Waitrose trade update for week ending 23 January 2016 from Marketing Director Rupert Thomas.
Customers appeared to be sticking to their health-driven New Year’s resolutions, with sales of healthy eating foods performing strongly.
Last week saw the beginning of the Power of 5 promotion, which allows customers to save 25% when they purchase any five fruit and veg products, giving them the opportunity to save on the lines they buy regularly while also being able to experiment with products they may not have bought before.
The promotion saw soft fruit continue to perform well, up 12.1%, with Nutribullet favourites strawberries and raspberries rising 29% and 14% respectively. To give smoothies that added ‘green’ boost, avocados were up 15.4% and organic green veg up 31%, with spinach proving to be a favourite, up 47%.
For a quick yet healthy evening meal, customers were picking up pre-packed fish, with sales up 17.4%, seafood, up 12.3% and service counter fish leaping by 15%. This was accompanied by the convenience of canned vegetables which saw sales increase by 10.4%.
Customers were also enjoying shopping at our branch service counters with service counter meat sales growing 10.1% on last year.
To complement healthy eating resolutions, customers were keen to purchase new pieces for their kitchens with cookware up 36% and dining products up 65.2%.
Whilst healthy eating is clearly still on the agenda for many, customers were also looking ahead at treating themselves over Easter, with Easter confectionery up 17.6% on the same period last year.
Last week also saw the launch of our new TV advert for Pick Your Own Offers, which has now seen 1 million customers sign up to the scheme.