Waitrose has launched a new branded innovation platform to help food brands develop and launch exclusive products into its stores.
Launched in partnership with product discovery platform RangeMe, the new programme – called BrandsNew at Waitrose – will help Waitrose buyers discover new products from existing and challenger fmcg brands. It will then provide support to help create and develop the products, which will then be stocked in its stores.
Following the success of recent branded partnerships with Ottolenghi, Wild Farmed and Zoe, Waitrose said it was aiming for branded innovation to become a much more significant part of its NPD efforts then it currently is, alongside its existing own label innovation.
To support the move, the supermarket has restructured functions within its existing buying team to form a new “Value Added” team under Rachel Dowsett, in the newly created role of head of category trading and value-added food, The Grocer can reveal.
Alongside branded innovation, the team will oversee elements like counters, hospitality and other areas of its footprint that complement its core grocery offer.
“We have historically led in this space, and we want to do that again,” Dowsett told The Grocer, highlighting Waitrose’s early success in introducing brands like Innocent and Pukka to the market.
“Brands give us certain expertise, passions, trends and a customer gap in the market. We think we can use those to help us plug where there is need that we would either not play in internally, or where we want to amplify what we are doing ourselves.”
The new innovation platform would act as a support function for buying teams, allowing them to “focus on being buyers”, Dowsett said.
Over the next year, Waitrose will invest £2m into the BrandsNew platform. The programme is being led by long-time Waitrose buyer Ollie Chadwyck-Healey, who began working on the launch earlier this year.
Brands submit entries via a dedicated application page on RangeMe, which are then looked through by Chadwyck-Healey’s team.
If selected, brands will work with category buyers to develop products, which will then be given dedicated space on Waitrose shelves and online. Brands will also receive an additional “support package” like access to shopper data, marketing and help with launch activations.
Brands may also receive discounted rates and elevated space on Waitrose shelves.
Waitrose has also partnered with innovation consultancy YF, which will provide additional consultancy support for brands.
Waitrose will review specific entries in line with its ongoing calendar of category reviews. However, Chadwyck-Healey said buyers may consider launching products in categories outside those windows if they particularly stand out. Crisps and snacks is the next category up for review, in the new year.
Waitrose hasn’t set a specific target on how many brands it aims to launch, but Chadwyck-Healey said the aim was to develop a “serious number of products”.
While exclusivity “is definitely important”, Waitrose won’t necessarily require brands to launch exclusively with them.
“What we’ll do is make sure that we’re giving them the best chance to sell to our customers,” Dowsett said.
Innovation increasingly important for Waitrose
It comes as a now buoyant Waitrose seeks to build on its improved performance over the past year. Its 5% growth in sales during the first half of the year, revealed last week, represented 10 consecutive months of growth.
Alongside improvements in availability and shops, executives credit investments in its innovation efforts over the past year, as a reason for helping to bring customers back to shops. They believe NPD to be one of its key points of difference.
“Customers love brands that are ours, but also niche, novel, new, exciting and sexy brands,” Dowsett said.
“We recognise that we aren’t’ always super easy to work with, or super speedy, and so by putting some dedicated focus on to it, hopefully we can cut through that so we can bring more of what our customers want on to shelves.”
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