Waitrose? Bring it on say shoppers and retail rivals

Thursday 24th June 2010, 2:30PM BST.

Waitrose UK ws RETAIL rivals have welcomed the challenge of competing with Waitrose.

Both the Co-op and Alliance said news that the UK supermarket operator was moving into the island was positive for the community.

Waitrose has agreed to buy Checkers Admiral Park and Safeway from Sandpiper and both will be rebranded and reopened as Waitrose stores in the early part of 2011.

The company, which is part of the John Lewis group, will also stock John Lewis hardware.

Co-op chief executive Jim Hopley was not surprised to learn of the Sandpiper-Waitrose deal. ‘Sandpiper was always going to sell some of the business because that is the nature of private equity,’ he said.

Alliance managing director Andrew Bagot thought the purchase was good news for the island.

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View more: Shopping Retail news, Waitrose news.

1
Queenbee

June 24, 2010 at 2:51 pm

Hurrah! I can’t wait. :-)

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2
I.Le Page

June 24, 2010 at 8:13 pm

Hope they still stock Iceland products cos they are the best value around at the moment.

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3
Chris M

June 24, 2010 at 10:18 pm

whilst I do like Waitrose products, some of their goods in the UK shops can be a bit pricey.
Thats probably why the Co Op and Alliance aren’t overly concerned. Waitrose is more of a competition for M & S.
It would also be logical to assume that Iceland products will no longer be available.
Unless, of course, Alliance see an opening there..

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4
GsyLdn

June 25, 2010 at 12:33 pm

Actually Waitrose offer a lot of different price ranges. Their cheepest range is very affordable and much better quality than any of the basic ranges in other supermarkets. I think this will be great for Guernsey!

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