Waitrose responds to claims of stock shortages

Waitrose has refuted claims of stock shortages in its stores.

The comments come after the The Sunday Times claimed there was a shortage of certain products including cheese, coffee and beans. The newspaper attributed the stock shortage to technical issues with Waitrose’s new enterprise resource planning system (ERP).

In a statement on Twitter, Waitrose said that this was not the case and its customers deserve to get the “full picture”.

“This year, product availability in Waitrose stands at 91.3 per cent , according to independent research from The Grocer. This is ahead of some other supermarkets, including Tesco (90.8 per cent) and Morrisons (90.4 per cent), and we've been first or second for availability in many of the recent weeks,” Waitrose said.

“We're not complacent and as always we're working hard to give our customers the best Christmas,” the supermarket said.

Waitrose is part of the John Lewis partnership, which recently announced a pre-tax loss of £99 million for the first six months of the year.

Waitrose sales reached £3.6 billion in the first half, down five per cent compared to the same period of last year. During the pandemic, the grocery brand saw bigger baskets as customers were restricted by covid - meaning less eating out and grocery shops.

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