Waitrose has announced plans to open two stores in Hale Barns, South Manchester, and Cricklewood, North West London, as it continues to reach more customers in new areas. The stores, totalling more than 30,000 sq ft of selling space, are expected to open in the autumn. They mark the latest step in Waitrose’s £1bn, multi-year investment programme, focused on improving shops, service and convenience for customers.

Via our innovation platform, BrandsNew, we launched Mixed Berry All Things Cottage Cheese, Gymkhana’s pre marinated BBQ range, Tallow and Ash, Wilton, Fable, Tiba Tempeh, Three Spirit, Ottolenghi ice creams and new All Dressed UP flavours.

We celebrated our Waitrose Spring Beer, Wine and Spirit tasting this month where we showcased 181 different products to media and influencers. Our ongoing investment in premium options is proving popular, especially in own-brand wines where sales are up 11% compared to last year. We’ve expanded our No.1 range bringing the total own-brand collection over 80 wines. We were also delighted to be named ‘Sustainable Drinks Retailer of the Year’ at The Drinks Retailing Awards.

We are investing over £20m to lower prices on more than 160 of the most popular own brand products in customers’ everyday shop, cutting the cost of products bought by nearly 8 in 10 customers.  Prices have been reduced by an average of 12%, with some everyday items cut by more than 25%, across staples including free range eggs, onions, chicken thighs, apples, frozen peas and cupboard staples such as chickpeas and chopped tomatoes - ingredients many customers use to cook every day meals at home.

To celebrate 20 years of Open Farm Sunday, we were honoured to welcome Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Edinburgh, LEAF and British farmers to the Waitrose farm, Leckford Estate.

As farms across the UK get ready to welcome visitors this June, Her Royal Highness joined the Leckford team helping set up a haybale maze and hanging welcome banners around the site for this year’s Open Farm Sunday.

Waitrose reported a surge in demand for Sri Lankan foods with sales of curry leaves +56%, spiced butternut & lentil dal +84% and tamarind paste +165% compared to this time last year. Searches on Waitrose.com were up, with ‘Sri Lankan curry’ +275%, ‘Lemongrass paste’ +247% compared to this time last year and sambol recipes +80% in the last month.

Little Waitrose Cheam officially reopened this month. We were delighted to welcome comedian Tim Vine to help cut the ribbon on our multimillion-pound refurbishment.  Food lovers visiting the upgraded Cheam branch can look forward to a brand-new bakery, an improved, easier-to-navigate layout, and a better showcase of our exceptional, fresh produce.

Europe’s first bone broth for little ones, this organic beef bone broth has been specially developed for children aged 3+. Helping parents add natural protein and flavour to everyday family meals, without the high salt levels often found in adult versions.