Waitrose is ramping up its efforts to tackle longstanding issues with availability.
The supermarket told suppliers at its latest trade briefing that availability was improving but making further improvements was a top priority.
It conceded it needed to tackle its “availability challenge”, telling suppliers that its current level of availability was 95% across branches and e-commerce.
Availability has been one of the few areas where Waitrose has underperformed rivals in recent years.
Although Waitrose consistently achieves excellent customer service scores in The Grocer 33, the supermarket typically scores poorly on availability.
In 2012, it had the worst score of the supermarkets, at 94.2%, and this year came second from bottom at 94.6% - compared with an average for the big four of 95.7%.
At the briefing, Waitrose outlined its plans to keep shelves well stocked. It would be implementing a weather model to improve demand forecasting, it said, adding that it would also be moving to central ordering on ambient and non-volatile lines.
Suppliers were told they had a key role to play. Ensuring suppliers delivered the correct quantities on time and loaded correctly would be a big area of focus, Waitrose said.
Waitrose also urged suppliers to stay in close contact with it regarding orders and to share their forecasts via its extranet site for supplier communication.
Suppliers welcomed its call for greater communication.
“If something is going against trend, they want suppliers to get in touch,” said one supplier. “It makes a lot of sense. We have had situations in the past when there hasn’t been enough product in stores and it could have been avoided with better communication.”
Waitrose said the opening of its new distribution centre this autumn, in Leyland, Lancashire, would also help improve availability, particularly in the north of England and Scotland.
Last year, in an exclusive interview with The Grocer, Waitrose MD Mark Price conceded that increasing the number of product facings in stores had affected availability.
“We’ve introduced more ranges, so the space we dedicate to a range tends to be less, and with more items on promotion, or if a product is recommended, it can present all kinds of problems,” he said.
Waitrose declined to comment on the specifics of its availability plans.
“Availability is always a top priority for us and is why we’re constantly balancing the need for good availability with a sensible approach to wastage,” said a spokesman.
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