The John Lewis Partnership-owned grocer will be launching its very first grocery convenience store early next year. It has hired services of Anthony Wysome, a consultant, as the head of convenience.
Waitrose will be entering the fast-growing £27.4bn market for small shops and compete with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer.

Waitrose’s plan poses a threat to Marks and Spencer which reported a slump of 4.5 per cent in its sales of like-for-like food and also lost an able food director Steve Esom, who resigned from the company recently.
A Waitrose spokeswoman informed that it will open a shop in next six to nine months and its convenience stores will be sized between 3,000 sq ft. to 4,000 sq ft.

Andrew Kasoulis, an analyst at Credit Suisse, is anticipating that Waitrose will compete with M&S Simply Food, but will take longer to succeed and to compete with other rivals.

Waitrose launched its first market-town store in St Neots, Cambridgeshire this May. The second store was opened in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire in June and a week after the third one will be opened in Brackley, Northamptonshire. These stores sell fresh food and locally sourced produce.According to the grocery expert IGD, sales in the UK convenience sector grew by 5.1 per cent to £27.4bn in 2007, much faster than the overall grocery market.