Store: Waitrose Petersfield
Store manager: Andy Compton
Opened: 1993
Size: 18,490 sq ft
Market share: 23.78%
Population: 31,761
Grocery spend: £925,661.41
Spend by household: £69.34
Competitors: 8
Nearest rivals: Aldi 10.6 miles, Asda 9.6 miles, Co-op 0.5 miles, Iceland 9.5 miles, Lidl 0.3 miles, M&S 0.1 miles, Morrisons 7.2 miles, Sainsbury’s 7.7 miles, Tesco 0.2 miles, Waitrose 10.3 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius.
For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
What has been your career trajectory at Waitrose? I joined Waitrose as an A-level trainee 36 years ago, and worked my way up. Ironically, my first role as a department manager was at Waitrose in Petersfield when it opened. We are 30 years old in September. I’ve worked in most branches around the south coast, working my way up to be a branch manager here. This is not my first appointment – I opened Waterlooville, then also opened Chandler’s Ford and I went to Godalming before coming here.
How has the store changed in 30 years? When it opened, it was a slightly smaller store. It had an extension probably 15 years ago, and the river is now at the front of the store. Petersfield is a Waitrose town and the store opened with a bang – we were one of the first branches on the south coast to open at the time. We were also one of the first branches to open with full scanning on the tills, so it was kind of an iconic branch when it opened. It continues to trade strongly and it’s a great branch to run. Not long ago, we had 10 partners who had been working in the branch since it opened. We’ve only got one left now as most of them have retired.
What relationship do you have with the local community? We’ve always had strong links with the community. We’ve supported local schools with quite sizeable donations over our time. Petersfield has remained a strong, vibrant market town and that’s good to see. Thankfully, there aren’t too many empty shops and we continue to trade strongly.
How has the year been for you so far? This year we’ve kicked off with our value campaign, which has been really well received by customers. People are very price-conscious now and shop around a lot more. Since we’ve introduced the value campaign, I’ve seen customers return. In Petersfield, we’ve had an Aldi open just on the other side of the railway crossing and it always hurts when something like that opens, but it’s good to see our customers coming back and responding positively to the campaign. We’ve got hundreds of lines where we’ve reduced the price by up to 20%.
How are you preparing for Easter? Easter is always very last minute with customers. We’ve got a full range of Easter eggs, and this year we’ve removed pretty much all of the plastic packaging. We’ve also got the No 1 meal deal, which has been really successful with customers – it’s great value for money and offers restaurant-quality food to eat at home.
How do you keep store standards high? I think it’s very much about partners feeling really part of the branch. I’m close to the partners, I work alongside them and they’re very much involved in the day-to-day decisions. They’ll regularly challenge me. It’s about giving them ownership over what they achieve. People very much care about the store. I have a very open management style – I care about the people who work for me. The partners would describe the branch as having a family atmosphere – it’s small enough to be able to create that. Everybody knows everybody. People support each other, and if you create an environment in which people care about each other, partners care about the customers they serve.
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