Supermarket Waitrose & Partners started as a small grocery store in west London in 1904 and is now one of the most familiar retailers on the UK high street. We look at how this employee-owned retailer, now part of the John Lewis Partnership, grew to become one of the UK's favourite brands.

What we now know as Waitrose began as a small grocery store in Acton, 115 years ago. Founded by Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor, it was then known as Waite, Rose & Taylor and sold a wide array of fine-quality foodstuffs. Waite was in charge of buying, Rose took care of the accounts and Taylor worked on the shop floor. When Taylor left in 1908, the other two formed the Waitrose Ltd – with the name inspired by a combination of their own.

Waite and Rose acquired more stores in the Acton area. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Waite diversified into the wholesale trade by supplying the army at Catterick, North Yorkshire. But Rose was injured while serving in action and ongoing ill-health led him to stand down in 1924.

Rose's departure left Waite in sole control of the flourishing business with a reputation for high standards. Waite was insistent such standards were maintained and his family later remembered him driving around branches, running his finger over window sills to check they were clean enough.

In 1928, Waitrose was awarded a Royal Warrant by King George V to supply groceries and cleaning materials. The Windsor branch received the mark of recognition, handed to individuals or companies who have supplied goods or services to the royal household for at least five years, because it supplied Queen Mary with her favourite honey soap. It proved to be the first of several awarded to Waitrose over the decades...

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Waitrose continued to expand by opening stores in affluent areas. Eric Rainbow, who joined the Gerrards Cross branch, pictured, in 1932 and worked there until he was called up to serve in the Second World War, remembered coffee being roasted in-store. The roaster was placed near the door in an attempt to lure in passersby.

Waite became known for championing products from across the Empire. A 1930s ad for the Gerrards Cross store confidently declared it to be a "permanent exhibition of the world's choicest foods", adding: "Nothing is better than the best – and only the best is good enough for Waitrose Stores – and you." His promotion of British and Empire products, such as Indian tea or Canadian honey, eventually earned Waite an MBE.

By 1937, Waite was looking for someone to take over his Waitrose stores and maintain the high standards they'd become known for. On 1 October that year, all 10 shops and 160-plus employees joined the John Lewis Partnership, with Waite staying in the business until he retired in 1940.

The John Lewis Partnership was founded in 1929 by John Spedan Lewis, who took over the eponymous department store on Oxford Street upon his father's death. While he retained practical control of the company, profits were now distributed among its staff. In 1950, he signed a second deed of settlement which passed the ownership of the John Lewis Partnership to the people employed within it. His bold ideas still drive the way the business is run today.

The next major milestone for Waitrose & Partners was the move to self-service stores in the 1950s. Until then, nearly all grocery shops only offered counter service – which proved somewhat time consuming for staff and shoppers alike. Self-service shopping was trialled at Schofield & Martin, a small chain of stores in Essex, in 1951. Four years later, Waitrose opened its first supermarket in Streatham.

Waitrose had grown to about 50 branches by the early 1970s, including some smaller stores but also more and more supermarkets. This rapid expansion also meant taking on more staff. Paul Stagg, who was a management trainee in the 1970s, remembered attending a John Lewis Partnership training course in the Lake District, camping on fells and crossing rivers on ropes.

Waitrose soon needed a larger headquarters and distribution centre, a more modern version of which is pictured left. In 1974, the company opened a new head office and warehouse in Bracknell, where it is still headquartered today. The facility housed the first high-bay warehouse in the UK and, being controlled by computers and automated cranes, it was one of the most advanced of its kind in the world.

Waitrose became the first UK supermarket to sell organic produce in 1983. It has continued to lead the way in the field ever since. In 2009, the chain took over Duchy Originals, which was founded by the Prince of Wales to champion organic farming in 1990. What is now known as Waitrose Duchy Organic has become the UK’s largest own-label organic brand and the second largest British organic brand overall.

There was a right royal occasion in 1984, when the Queen visited the Windsor branch of Waitrose during the opening of the King Edward Court shopping centre. The partnership did not do much advertising until the 1990s, with the exception of new store openings, so the royal visitor brought some welcome PR. The predominant colour on its branding then was orange, to catch the eye of customers on the high street. But in 1987, a major rebranding saw it assume the current green colour scheme. 

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Also in 1984, a branch manager was surprised to spot a gilded Waitrose sign while driving through London's Pimlico, which had been uncovered during a revamp of a bookmaker's shop. Research showed that it had been one of Waitrose's earliest shops during the 1920s, but was closed by the time it became part of the John Lewis Partnership. In 2017, estate agent Jackson-Stops discovered another original sign beneath the first one. Both are now property of the John Lewis Heritage Centre.

Waitrose became the first British supermarket to sell a pre-packaged version of Japanese specialty sushi in 1996. Nearly a decade later, it also became the first retailer of its kind to offer a freshly-made sushi counter in selected branches. The Sushi Daily service is now available at more than 80 stores across the UK.

In 1997, Waitrose introduced its revolutionary "Bag for Life" scheme. The idea for a reusable shopping bag was developed by Paul Ovstedal, general manager (services), and it soon became the company's key environmental product. Customers could buy a Bag for Life for 10p, use it repeatedly and then get it replaced free of charge when it wore out. Waitrose introduced a bespoke Wine Bag for Life three years later.

Waitrose entered into a branding and sourcing arrangement with online supermarket Ocado in 2000, which began commercial deliveries two years later. Its initial delivery area covered 100,000 households and expanded to cover more than 10 million by 2005. Ocado continues to sell Waitrose-branded products, although Waitrose has since launched its own delivery service.

The Leckford Estate in Hampshire was first bought by the John Lewis Partnership founder, John Spedan Lewis, in 1929. Not only did it produce food, but also acted as a recreational facility for partners and even served as an airfield during the Second World War. In 2001, the estate became part of Waitrose's trading division and was officially known as the Waitrose Farm, supplying supermarkets across the UK. It later also became the first British retailer to plant its own vineyard.

In 2004, Waitrose bought out 19 supermarkets from rival retailer Wm Morrison, for around £320 million. This deal meant the upmarket grocer could expand north of Newark, Nottinghamshire for the first time, including in locations such as Harrogate, Hull and Southport. Two years later, Waitrose moved into the Scottish market, with the opening of two stores in Edinburgh.

The Queen returned to the Windsor branch of Waitrose in 2008 after the local shopping centre's redevelopment, but only after all newspapers covering her grandson Harry's deployment in Afghanistan were removed from her eyeline, reported the Daily Telegraph. Waitrose continues to enjoy royal backing, having received Royal Warrants from both the Queen and Prince Charles. It also held a Royal Warrant as Grocers to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1994-2007.

Throughout the years, Waitrose remained closely associated with the high ethical and quality standards established by its founders. However, this became an issue after the 2008 financial crash when it risked becoming associated as a retailer for special occasions, rather than for daily shopping. In response, the company launched its Essential Waitrose range with the tagline "Everyone deserves quality food". Waitrose saw sales lift by 14.6% thanks to the campaign. 

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Waitrose teamed up with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, known for his multi-sensory cooking and unusual food pairings in dishes such as snail porridge, for the launch of its "Heston from Waitrose" brand in 2010. The range of packaged food, which has included Christmas-themed eccentricities such as his Melting Chocolate Sprout Dessert, pictured left, has been a hit ever since.

In 2011, Waitrose opened its first Dotcom Fulfilment Centre in Acton, after a £10 million relaunch of its Waitrose Deliver website. The company wanted to capitalise on a clause in its contract with Ocado that allowed it to deliver from any of its shops within the M25 by opening a "dark store" where staff, not customers, picked groceries to fulfil online orders.

Waitrose moved into the convenience store market in 2008, with the opening of a smaller branch in Nottingham. Ian Kirkdale, of Beeston, was one of the customers pleased they would no longer need to travel to Lincoln or Newark for their shopping, reported The Guardian. As was his wife, who declared: "It's like shopping at Harrods." There are now more than 50 Little Waitrose convenience stores across the UK. 

September 2018 saw Waitrose and John Lewis launch their first joint marketing campaign, emphasising their employee-owned business model amid an increasingly challenging retail environment. The new unified brand identity saw both companies add "& Partners" to their names and implement similar branding in an attempt to better reflect their mutual democratic ethos. 

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As part of the joint rebranding, Waitrose mocked the John Lewis Christmas marketing campaign by showing a family fast forwarding through the latter's festive TV ad, featuring Sir Elton John. The tongue-in-cheek Waitrose version, one of six in a series, sees a girl urging her parents to sit down and watch the John Lewis ad, before her parents speed through it so they can eat some stollen cake. It is part of the supermarket's "Too Good to Wait" marketing campaign.

But while the branding has changed, the company's democratic ethos remains. All John Lewis and Waitrose staff, or "partners", benefit from competitive levels of pay, a yearly share of profits – last year's was 5% of each employee's pay – and subsidised shopping at both the supermarket and John Lewis, among other perks. There are some 83,000 employees in the John Lewis Partnership. 

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Other perks include discounted trips to various holiday and leisure destinations, such as Brownsea Castle, pictured left. The hotel on Brownsea Island, off the coast of Dorset, is just one of five holiday centres owned by the John Lewis Partnership that staff can enjoy at highly-subsidised prices. Once owned by Henry VIII, no less, the castle was gutted by a fire in the late 1800s. The John Lewis Partnership has leased it from The National Trust since 1962.

Waitrose remains as committed to high-welfare standards today as its founders Waite, Rose and Taylor intended. It is dedicated to maintaining high animal welfare and farming standards, as well as responsible fishing. The grocer also champions local produce, selling more than 1,400 locally and regionally sourced products from about 375 suppliers. In addition, Waitrose has vowed to tackle waste, including donating any surplus food to charities and social enterprises. 

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Despite once being limited to the Home Counties, Waitrose now exports its own-label and branded goods to over 50 countries around the world including India, Ghana, Hong Kong, the UAE, Bermuda, Spain and Malta. And while it faces increasing competition from domestic rivals such as Aldi, it still frequently tops charts for quality goods and customer service. After all, it's a bit like shopping at Harrods.  

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