Waitrose full-year results 2025/26: sales increase 7%

Increased sales and volumes

Waitrose has announced a sales growth of 7% with total sales reaching £8.5 billion for the year, a significant increase from last years 4.4% sales increase. Waitrose accredits a key driver towards this increase as being the ‘Home of Food Lovers’ strategy implemented throughout the year.

Waitrose has also outperformed the market with a 3% increase in volumes, while the overall sales volumes only rose by 1.3% in 2025 (Office for National Statistics), suggesting the Waitrose strategy and shopper loyalty make it steadfast in the face of lower shopper spend and the shift towards discounters. This volume growth is accompanied by a 97% on-shelf availability of products, helping promote the store as being continuously well-stocked and prepared for shopper demand, and overall contributing to the improvement in volumes in the year.

Profit is also in the positive for Waitrose with it recording an adjusted £256 million operating profit, an increase of £29 million from last year. The operating margin improved 16 margin basis points (bps) to reach 3.2%. These statistics all show a successful year for Waitrose in terms of its profitability and further suggests the strategy used going into 2025 has been implemented successfully.

Waitrose’s No.1 premium private label range has also seen an increase, like that of other retailer’s premium private labels which have been steadily increasing in sales. The No.1 range saw an increase in sales of 30% in the year ending 31^st January 2026, highlighting the importance and growth of private label in all retailers, even those attracting a more affluent shopper base.

Online also sees growth

When it comes to online Waitrose again seem to be on the rise, stating online volumes increased 11%, with online sales growing by 13% year-on-year. This, and the fact that online sales make up roughly 17% of Waitrose’s overall sales, suggests that online is becoming an incredibly viable and essential channel for sales.

Customer growth and loyalty improvement

Waitrose also recorded its 10^th consecutive quarter of customer growth, attracting 5% more shoppers than two years ago, and has achieving the highest recorded Net Promoter Score of 70.0, significantly higher than the supermarket average of 22.5. This can be somewhat attributed to an improved loyalty offer, as last year they launched Waitrose Little Treats to reward customers with money off or free products.

Expansion

In terms of expansion and improvement, Waitrose refurbished 23 of its stores in the year, and opened three new convenience stores in Wandsworth, The Arches (Bristol), and Southwick. The opening of three convenience stores ties into Waitrose’s overall plan to open 100 convenience stores across the UK, whether they still intend for it to be 100 new stores is to be seen but they are putting significant investment into the convenience channel of the business. They are also putting significant investment into distribution, building a 360,000 square foot distribution centre in Bristol.

Commitment to higher welfare and improved supply chains

Waitrose has also spent the year focusing on the welfare of its produce and producers, with a better chicken commitment, higher welfare pork, improved pay for banana workers, and the recent suspension of its supply of mackerel from the North-East Atlantic.

During the call there was a Q&A section where John Lewis expressed it opinion that the sustained food inflation in the UK will continue, but it intends to focus on what the customer needs over everything else. In this portion, the retailer also expressed it has been and will continue to make significant investments in its forecasting systems for supply and into its stock management.

Conclusion

Waitrose has had another successful year of growth in both sales and volumes. This growth has followed into the start of 2026 with the latest grocery market share reporting Waitrose increased its market share in February.  Operating profits are on the rise and online continues to grow into a viable source of income for the retailer. Shoppers opinions of Waitrose are also improving as seen by the customer growth increase, as well as the improve Net Promote Score, likely boosted by an improved loyalty offering. Waitrose’s strong performance brings concerns to other retailers with a similar shopper demographic, specifically M&S. M&S made a strong recovery in sales after a drop due to the cyber-attacks in spring of 2025, with data suggesting that Waitrose was the main beneficiary of the disruption, making switching gains against M&S through the summer of 2025. It is still to be seen how M&S performed overall for the year, with full-year results expected in May 2026. Overall, the growth shown by Waitrose across multiple facets of the business signifies that it is reaping the rewards of its investments and changes in strategies. Looking to the future, Waitrose has stated its intention to focus on customer needs overall, investing in its supply chain and real estate under the umbrella of this focus.