http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6d6b0688-7a60-11df-9cd7-00144feabdc0.html
"
What does he think is behind the brand’s popularity? Just like the John Lewis chain of department stores, middle England can’t seem to get enough of Waitrose. Wherever a new store opens, the shoppers come. It is a case of supply nowhere near meeting demand (Waitrose’s footprint in the UK is a flea on an elephant’s back when compared with its bigger rivals) but it also reflects, thinks Price, the shift towards a more ethical kind of consumption.
Waitrose has made a big thing about paying fair prices to farmers – recent figures from industry bible The Grocer show that it pays farmers more for milk than its rivals do – while the Waitrose Foundation, founded in South Africa in 2005, ensures that a cut of profits made on foods such as mangoes and avocados is paid directly to farm workers to spend on anything from HIV projects to football coaching. The foundation is now being rolled out in Ghana and Kenya.
“The politicisation of food is one of the major issues going forward,” Price says, finishing off his asparagus spears and taking a sip of perfectly chilled Albariño. “Waitrose has been historically well-positioned to reassure customers that these things are really important to us – we own a farm and the foundation in Africa – and we are not doing it for short-term benefits but because it is the right thing to do. I think our customers are aware ... that Waitrose cares for those things.”
Comments