Waitrose Company: Challenges and Strategies during the Pandemic

This project discusses the challenges faced by Waitrose Company during the pandemic and the strategies implemented for future success. It analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on the business, including the reduction in footfall, supply chain disruptions, and employee demotivation. The project recommends implementing flexible models of operation, providing regular training to employees, and investing in technological innovation to cope with the changing consumer habits.

Business Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
RESULTS........................................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Global pandemic resulted in generation of deep rooted and serious concerns for the
businesses. Most importantly, the sales, profitability and the ability to manage the costs of
operation of the businesses were drastically affected. Businesses that were hit most severely
included food, accommodation, transport services and leisure. The current project is based on the
Waitrose Company which is a well-known British supermarket founded during the times of the
1904 and headquarter in the London, UK. Further, the current project comprises of discussion
about the key challenges and issues that are faced by an organisation during the times of the
pandemic along with suitable strategies that could be implemented for future success. Also, it is
observed that Covid – 19 had more negative impacts on the businesses than Brexit for almost all
the businesses in the UK.
RESULTS
Waitrose is a well-known and one of the most famous supermarkets in the United
Kingdom. Further, Waitrose has over 330 shops and retail stores across the UK. Apart from this,
it has a wide product range that includes and comprises of the grocery items.
Vision:
Being a successful business gaining its strength from the people in the organisation and
its principles which provides it with its uniqueness.
Mission:
Success of business is through happiness and satisfaction of the members who are in
employment of the organisation.
Organisation Structure:
Waitrose has a functional set of organisational structure where all the business activities
and tasks are properly divided on the basis of function comprising of finance, HRM, marketing
and many other departments (Coopmans et al. 2021). Besides this, it also supports and have a
standardised IP telephony system across all branches to provide better coordination and
communication among all the departments.
Organisational Strategy:
The organisational strategy of the Waitrose company customer centric where all products
and services are designed and offered in a way that ensures higher customer convenience and

satisfaction. Along with this, the Waitrose also tend to have a strategy of having aggressive
marketing and promotions in order to attract and cater a larger number of customers.
Company Culture:
Waitrose has a healthy and positive set of the company culture based on equality and
diversity that supports and brings out higher creativity and success level for the company (Hobbs
2021). Beside this, Waitrose also ensures regular training as well as performance based
incentives and perks for its employees to have a positive and motivated company culture.
Challenges faced during Pandemic:
During pandemic, Waitrose is the major supermarket chain that took the biggest hit by
drastic reduction in the footfall due to the change in the habits of shopping in the consumers.
This was due to imposing of strict lockdowns and social distancing norms which led to severe
hindrances in the supply chain and delayed deliveries. It faced 7.5% change in the grocery sales
during the pandemic.
DISCUSSION
On the basis of current project, a discussion can be made that the global pandemic of
covid-19 has created many challenges and issues for a Waitrose in form of strict lockdown and
social distancing that disturbed its supply chain as well as productivity level. Further, an issue
related with de-motivation in employees along with high employee turnover has been also faced
during the times of Covid-19 (Salam, Imtiaz and Burhan 2021). Thus, a discussion can be made
that some effective strategy such as offering online services seemed to be an effective way and
step by Waitrose that supported better reaction and mitigation of the challenge carted by global
pandemic. The organisation made heavy adjustments to the business giving special focus on their
online business.
During the pandemic, sales through online platform accounted for 20% of the total sales
with a whopping 238% increase in the sales of wine online. It implemented strategies to attract
the young customers through trial deliveries via Deliveroo which delivered a record of 650
products in under 30 minutes (Rivington et al. 2021). To support the sudden increase in the
online orders during pandemic the delivery service of Waitrose named as ‘Waitrose Rapid’ was
tripled but the issue of increasing cost of fulfilment was faced by the entity due to such sudden
increase in the online orders following the pandemic. Even during the times of lockdown it was

committed to deliver the best experience to the online customers as some of the in – store
services were shifted online like cookery courses and advisory for home interior and decorations.
With the falling of GDP of UK by 11%, Waitrose also felt the negative impact as it was unable
to pay the bonus to its partners in March 2021. The focus was on the prioritization and protection
of the business through getting back to making of the sustainable profits. Also, several rewards
were introduced for the partners rather than paying of bonuses to them (Sharma et al. 2020).
Shopping discount for the partners was increased to 25% and food on site free of cost for them. It
also had to unfortunately close down some of its stores in various locations due to reduction in
the percentage of the customers coming due to which it was no able to afford their operations. in
the place of operating such stores at various locations, its efforts concentrated more on
consolidation of its business online.
Thus, it can be said that Waitrose was able to stand the pressure of pandemic as it was
brave enough to take difficult decisions whenever they were required. This can be proved by the
fact that although the bonuses were not paid but the hard work of the partners was duly
recognized and rewarded (Pantano et al. 2020). It can be said that Waitrose is one of the industry
leaders due to its sheer capability and ability to make difficult and complicated choices and that
too without compromising with the core principles which it follows. These out of the box
strategies, choices and decisions helped Waitrose to face the adversities of global pandemic
effectively. It was able to discover a totally new style of operation through e – commerce
through such creative and practical approach which it adapted.
CONCLUSION
Following and facing such hard times, Waitrose did a commendable job in managing its
business and withstanding the challenges and issues imposed by the global pandemic. And it is
its highly effective and efficient overall response which makes it one of the leaders of the
industry along with its highly valued goodwill and high share in the market. Its strategies like
holding on the bonuses and offering increased discounts and free on site food to the partners
were exceptional in cutting the costs. Also, switching to the high speed delivery through
Deliveroo was a smart move which proved that it was able to develop its thriving presence in the
virtual world in amazingly limited time. Such switching was although expensive, but allowed
Waitrose in regaining its revenue footing and generating of the cash flow. Today, it has shops
operating in more than 332 places with the workforce of more than 50,000 individuals it can be

said that it has come a long way by utilizing its creativity, ethics, quality and strategic thinking.
All these principles assisted the entity to move and handle all the barriers during such difficult
times. All it takes is the right people working in the organisation and zeal to achieve the goals
and survive through the negative times.
RECOMMENDATION
It has been observed that the strategies and ideas that could be implemented by Waitrose
for future success includes supporting higher expansion through e-commerce and online services.
Also, it is advisable for the organisation to implement and follow the forward – looking strategy
and flexible models of operation which will help the organisation to achieve the maximum
growth possible. The Along with this, providing regular training to employees is also
recommended for Waitrose as it supports better technical skill in its employees to ensure
improved online services for customer. Beside this, to mitigate the issue of lack of employee
motivation, implication of effective motivation strategy such as leading performance based perks
and incentives could also be implemented by Waitrose that would support higher workplace
creativity and success.
Also, the major focus shall be on increasing the footfall which was compromised during
covid and after covid for sometime due to severe lock downs and following of social distancing
norms. This can be done through aggressive marketing and promotion of the store in various
locations. Such aggressive marketing and promotions are also part of the strategies of Waitrose
for attracting larger volume of customers and cater to them. Effective online service can also be
provided via websites and apps.
Investment in the technological innovation is the need of the hour to cope with the harsh
lockdowns requiring the employees to work from home which requires enhanced reliance on
technology. Businesses need to ensure continued working from home by the employees to stay
afloat in the market. This requires developing the new softwares, methods of communication and
digital systems. Digitalisation of the business is also one of the most effective ways to ensure
success in the future. This is because all the non – essential businesses have seized to exist
during the pandemic like museums, theatres, shops and cinemas.
It has been observed that the habits of the consumers have changed drastically and they
are more willing to do online shopping rather than going to the physical stores. Such use of e –

commerce trend requires very efficient system and network of logistics to be able to ship the
products to the people’s homes via ships, trains, airplanes or lorries.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
COOPMANS, I. et al., 2021. COVID-19 impacts on Flemish food supply chains and lessons for
agri-food system resilience. Agricultural Systems, 190, 103136.
HOBBS, J. E., 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic and meat supply chains. Meat Science, 181,
108459.
PANTANO, E. et al., 2020. Competing during a pandemic? Retailers’ ups and downs during the
COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Business research, 116, 209-213.
RIVINGTON, M. et al., 2021. UK food and nutrition security during and after the COVID‐19
pandemic. Nutrition Bulletin, 46(1), 88-97.
SALAM, M. T., IMTIAZ, H. and BURHAN, M., 2021. The perceptions of SME retailers
towards the usage of social media marketing amid COVID-19 crisis. Journal of
Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 13(4), 588-605.
SHARMA, P. et al., 2020. Managing uncertainty during a global pandemic: An international
business perspective. Journal of business research, 116. 188-192.