Waitrose focus on overseas

The company licens the Waitrose brand to Dubai-based retailer Spinneys, and is in contact with potential partners in South Africa, and in the USA.

 Spinneys has been selling a wide range of Waitrose own label products in the United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and neighbouring Oman, since 2004. From April 2008, the first Spinney's store to operate with a Waitrose fascia will be a 25,000sq f supermarket in a suburb of Dubai populated by British and other European families. Two further Waitrose branches will open in July and October 2008 respectively, one next to the Dubai Marina and the other at the new Burj Dubai Mall, currently under construction. In the following two years, Spinneys plans to convert 20 more stores to trade as Waitrose.