Sales at Waitrose have grown faster than its supermarket peers for a fourth month running, boosted by revamped stores and improved customer service, new data shows.
Figures from NIQ Scantrack, seen by The Telegraph, reveal that Waitrose sales grew 0.5 percentage points faster than the wider grocery market in the four weeks to 9 August.
This marks the fourth consecutive month in which the supermarket has outperformed its rivals, with overall grocery sales up around 2% in the same period.
The stronger performance follows a sales boost initially triggered in April by a crippling cyber attack at M&S, which disrupted the rival retailer’s operations. Waitrose had seen sales grow 0.6 percentage points faster than the market in the four weeks to 17 May.
The supermarket’s recent run of stronger sales also coincides with a major investment push. Last August, Waitrose announced plans to spend £1bn on its store estate over three years, including opening 100 new stores by 2029 and refurbishing nearly half of its existing shops, around 150 locations.
The premium grocer has also been overhauling staff shift patterns to ensure more workers are available to assist customers at peak times, as part of a broader focus on customer service.
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Jason Tarry, who joined John Lewis as chairman last September, has led a renewed focus on retail, shifting attention away from diversification into areas such as financial services and rental homes under his predecessor Dame Sharon White.
Analysts expect the partnership’s interim results to show widened losses for the first half of the year, but retail expert Nick Bubb said the group remains on track to hit £200m in pre-tax profits for the year to 31 January 2026.
The figures are also a boost for staff, who have been promised the return of bonuses once performance improves.
Internal survey data seen by The Telegraph shows staff are happier than in early 2024 and feel more supportive of the partnership’s strategy. Leadership responded to the survey by noting there is “more to do to make sure every partner understands and believes in our plan
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