Waitrose ‘reinvigorates’ range with new own-label lines and a fresh promotional dynamic

Waitrose has beefed up its own-label range after seeing a 71% uplift in the last three months, and is introducing a new promotional dynamic to help customers who are limiting their alcohol intake or their spending.

The upmarket retailer has rolled out around 80 new lines for the autumn, including on its own-label wines.

Four new wines have been added to its premium No. 1 range, which was launched in wine in 2019 and doubled to 26 last year; four under its Loved and Found range, and othes to its  ‘everyday’ Blueprint range. It has also added a number of wines sold exclusively on Waitrose Cellar.

Trading manager Nicola Jones said it had been a standout year for the retailer’s wine category, outperforming the market in both volume and value terms, and the team had done a lot of work finding the right producers to work with.

“When we do call that out on the front label, who’s making that wine, who we’re working with, the role it plays is, I think, bringing customers in,” she told db. “It brings new customers into wine in Waitrose, which we can see from the data that people that weren’t shopping wine at all are now buying into Waitrose, No. 1 wine. So that’s kind of ticking a box for us.”

The range also helped consumers navigate the fixture, acting as “a bit of a shortcut for customers” and giving them confidence that they would like it, particularly for regions that were more complex, and less-brand driven, such as regional France.

“Whenever you try something different, or you’re buying something different, there is a risk attached to it, and the item price is so high relative to it’s not like buying a different dip or pasta sauce,” she said. “In areas like France, we found it works particular [well] because it is quite a hard category for customers to shop unless they’re really into wine.”

Getting behind the No. 1 brand had been “a priority for the total business”, as the retailed wants to be known for quality and having the best own label range across food and drink, but Jones recognised that its role in a category as wide and varied as wine was “a bit different”.

“We want it to be the best in terms of grocery retail, or in terms of specialist retail in the UK,” she said.

Although it was slower to roll out for the wine category, Jones noted that the BWS team are now building on it. “I think because customers are used to seeing it now, the line’s doing really well, and we’re looking for more opportunities where we’ve got gaps in the range,” she said. It is also the range that is more given to promotions and No. 1 “events” such as 20% off all No. 1 lines, she added, versus the more everyday low pricing of the Blueprint range.

The wines added to the No. 1 label for the autumn comprise a Rheinhessen Riesling, a Primitivo di Manduria, a Gavi del Commune di Gavi and a De Grendel Foundation Sauvignon Blanc.

Refreshing the promotional mechanic

The retailer is also trialling a new ‘buy 3 for 4’ promotion across still wine and Champagne during its ‘Wine Lover Week’ at the end of the month, complete with a refreshed point of sale (POS) kit and look. Jones said was a “new and fresh” dynamic that would not only help customers who don’t want to buy into larger common promos such as ‘25% off six’ but also prevent promo offers getting stale.

“People love the ‘buy six’, but I guess we just want to see how we can play around with it – how can we please more customers and excite more customers,” she said. “The problem when you run those events is that you do alienate a lot of customers that don’t want to buy six bottles. So the new mechanic that we’re going to try for our next event is a ‘4 for 3’ which hopefully will mean that we can offer some great value to customers that don’t want to buy six and lower the threshold that they need to buy in order to trigger the offer.”

“It is also something new and fresh, because everyone does the ‘buy six’ [offer], and it’s almost as if customers have come to expect it, and so hold off. In some instances, aren’t they buying it until it’s on offer.”

It also caters for the ongoing trend for people drinking less but better – “everyone is watching the pennies, but there is a longer term trend towards drinking less, but drinking  better, which I think we’re really well placed to provide to customers, as we have a lot of options for them to trade up,” she added. “We are doing as much as we can to excite people about some of the other wines, and we’re doing a lot with trying to get people to pair products together, pairing with food.”

She added that offering value to customers in the curent climate was “challenging”.

“We’re outperforming the market, but it is a declining market, so it’s really challenging and it’s really [a] balancing [act]. There’s a lot of headwinds in terms of duty and costs, which have gone up,” she said. “It’s about trying to create that emotional connection and trying to get people to trade up in order to make up for the fact that we [ie the industry] are selling fewer bottles, trying to attract people into the category, which is always hard work.”

Two areas she flagged for offering great value where Waitrose “has done a lot of work”, include regional France and South Africa, which offered “exciting opportunities”, not only at the entry leve, but at the premium end as well.

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