Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
From today (Tuesday July 5), Waitrose will become the first supermarket to sell own label products through British Corner Shop: an online store that delivers British food to customers worldwide.
The grocery chain said the move will enable it to enter entirely new territories from the 138 countries that British Corner Shop regularly ships to, including the US and Germany, which are not among the countries that the UK retailer currently exports to. Last year British Corner Shop shipped more than 50,000 orders overseas.
The website will give shoppers global access to more than 2,000 products available from Waitrose branches and add to the 10,000 products that the online service already stocks. International customers will be able to choose from the supermarket’s own label products and ranges including Waitrose Duchy Organic, Waitrose Baby, essential Waitrose and the recently launched Waitrose 1* range.
British-produced food and drink including biscuits, cakes, tea and soup are expected to be among the most popular products. British Corner Shop also reports a growing demand from customers for ‘free from’ and organic products.
Waitrose commercial director Mark Williamson said: “British Corner Shop gives a global audience access to Waitrose and provides a platform for our British suppliers to showcase the great food and drink they produce. We are proud that our brand continues to retain the loyalty and trust of customers wherever they are in the world.”
British Corner Shop managing director Mark Callaghan added: “We’re delighted to have agreed a deal with Waitrose. Extending the current British Corner Shop range with Waitrose product lines gives our customers greater choice.
“We know the Waitrose brand will go down well with our British expat customer base. In particular categories such as biscuits and household are in demand, and the Waitrose Duchy Organic brand is often requested.
“Waitrose and British Corner Shop share a company value of ‘championing British’, and we look forward to growing our relationship with Waitrose, and to exporting the Waitrose brand to customers around the world.”
Waitrose currently exports to 58 countries including China, Spain, India, Singapore, Ghana, Mauritius, South Africa, Barbados, Bermuda, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Grenada, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia and St Lucia. Its supermarket customers include Food Lover’s Market in South Africa, Unimarc in Chile, Park N Shop in Hong Kong, Eroski in Gibraltar, and Arkadia in Malta. Waitrose products are also in department stores in South Korea and Switzerland and it recently opened its eighth shop in the Middle East. Waitrose has 349 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 60 convenience branches.
British Corner Shop was originally established in 1999, but acquired in 2004 by Mark Callaghan. It was named in ‘The Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100 which ranks Britain’s top 100 private small and medium-sized (SME) companies with the fastest-growing international sales over the last two years. It won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2016.
