Waitrose anniversaries 2013

1913 – 100 years – Acton Lane and Churchfield Road Acton opened. Both now closed branches.

1938 – 75 years – First time that Waitrose Partners received Partnership Benefit Shares. Each Benefit Share Certificate could be sold for over £1 – ‘these documents are valuable and should be carefully kept’. – November 1938

Letter from Golders Green Partners, Gazette 18.6.1938

“It is our first experience of a direct share in the profits, although we have had it in other ways in the past, and, judging by the feeling it has created, I am quite sure your new Waitrose Partners will do their utmost to ensure that the allotment will be even larger next year.”

1963 – 50 years (July) Experimental blue van came into commission. ‘A departure from the traditional green, it has a gay pale blue body, set off by a white roof, with bold black and white lettering on the sides.’ ‘The trolley motif on the side gives an immediate visual impression of a supermarket, even if the van is travelling at speed.’

1963 –  50 years

Guildford supermarket opens.

1973 – 40 years

March – Waitrose East Sheen opens.

June – Waitrose Kingsthorpe opens.

October – Waitrose Cirencester opened in its original location in 1973. The branch relocated in 1995.

October – Waitrose Weybridge opens.

October – Waitrose Leighton Buzzard opens.

November – Waitrose Westbury Park opens.

1983 – 30 years

May – Waitrose Woodley 180 opens (30 years in this branch, previously branch 143, opened 1970).

November – Waitrose Goldsworth Park opens.

1988 – 25 years

March – New Waitrose Milton Keynes opens less than half a mile from original store.

March – Waitrose Richmond opens.

October – Waitrose Sunningdale opens.

1993 – 20 years

July – Waitrose Bury St Edmunds opens.

August – Waitrose Bishops Stortford opens.

September – Waitrose Petersfield opens.

October – Waitrose Holloway Road opens.

November – Waitrose Stroud opens.

 

2003 – 10 years

April – Waitrose Belgravia opens.

May – Waitrose Mill Hill opens.

June – Waitrose  Portishead opens.

2008 – 5 years

January – Waitrose Sandhurst opens.

June – Waitrose Bayswater opens.

June – Waitrose Buckingham opens with a new ‘Market Town’ format.

July – Waitrose launches Community Matters charity scheme.

July – Waitrose St Neots opens with a new ‘Market Town’ format.

July – Waitrose Brackley opens.

July – Waitrose becomes the only food retailer in Britain to sponsor a major football club, with its name appearing on Reading FC’s new home and away kits – July.

August – Waitrose Kenilworth opens.

August – Waitrose Pontprennau opens.

September – Waitrose Eldon Square opens in Newcastle.

November – Waitrose Crewkerne opens.

November – Waitrose opens a 22,000 sq ft store at the London Westfield shopping centre, near Shepherds Bush.

November – Waitrose opens its first branch in Dubai – December.

December – Waitrose Edgeware opens.

December – Waitrose Chiswick opens.

December  – Waitrose Clapham opens.

December – Waitrose opens its first convenience shop at Trinity Square, Nottingham.