The history 1864 John Lewis opens his first shop on London's Oxford Street 1904 Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor open their first small store in West London 1905 John Lewis buys Peter Jones in London's Sloane Square 1914 Founder's son, John Spedan Lewis, takes charge of Peter Jones and starts his first experiment in staff participation 1925 Spedan Lewis adopts the principle of "Never Knowingly Undersold" 1928 John Lewis dies. Spedan Lewis assumes full control of the business 1928 Waitrose granted a Royal Warrant to the House of Windsor 1929 Spedan Lewis creates the First Trust Settlement ­ creating the John Lewis Partnership in which all the profits will be distributed among the partners 1937 The Waitrose chain of 10 stores is bought 1950 The Second Trust Settlement is made and the residual interest in the business of founder Spedan Lewis is transferred to a trust company 1951 Waitrose Southend becomes first branch to convert to self service 1955 Waitrose opens its first supermarket ­ a 2,000 sq ft store in Streatham. 1959 Two directorates of trading are created and Waitrose is separated from the department stores for the first time 1963 Spedan Lewis dies 1976 Partnership opens its first out of town venture ­ a Waitrose and John Lewis at Brent Cross 1983 The Partnership's sales pass through the £1bn barrier 1987 Waitrose celebrates its 50 years in the Partnership 1991 Waitrose sales exceed £1bn 1992 Waitrose opens its 100th shop ­ at Longfield in Kent 1993 Second regional distribution depot at Brinklow opened 1993 Waitrose starts installing new EPoS system 1993 The Partnership acquires mail order wine merchant Findlater Mackie Todd. Waitrose Winedirect is launched 1994 Waitrose granted Royal Warrant by the Queen Mother 1994 First Waitrose Food & Home supercentre opens in Southend 1994 The first 18 Waitrose branches start Sunday trading 1995 First Welsh store at Monmouth 1996 Quick Check self scanning launched by Waitrose 1997 Waitrose opens its most northerly branch ­ at Newark 1998 Named organic supermarket of the year by the Soil Association 1998 Waitrose@work launched 1999 Waitrose Food Illustrated published for the first time 2000 Waitrose buys 11 stores from Somerfield ­ and announces plans to open six more. By Christmas it will have 136 stores 2000 The Partnership celebrates its Golden Jubilee {{Z SUPPLEMENTS }}

Topics