Waitrose (Part of John Lewis Partnership) Full-Year Report 2023

Waitrose performance
Waitrose sales for the year were £7.3bn, down 3% like-for-like and in total compared to last year. Revenue was
£6.8bn, down 3% on last year. This equates to a reduction in market share from 5.0% to 4.7%. Trading operating
profit fell by £125.3m to £894.3m, due to five key drivers: challenging trading dynamics, inflation pressure and
one-off cost inefficiencies, partially offset by cost savings and profit growth from new propositions. These are
described further below.

1. Trading dynamics – Despite customer numbers increasing by 7% in the year, sales volumes were down 10% in
the year. There are a number of factors driving this including record online volume gains from last year in part
reversing and a consumer shift to convenience, where we’re looking to grow our presence in future. We also saw
customers putting fewer items in their basket (basket size down 15% in shops) and switching to lower priced
products.

High online volumes last year have now normalised to lower levels, albeit well above pre pandemic levels. Online
sales this year represented just over 14% of Waitrose sales at average orders per week of 168,000. This
compares to 17% last year at average weekly orders of 213,000. This 27% drop in online volumes was expected
and contributed significantly to the movement in market share during the year