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waitrose
waitrose
IT
’s 1904 and Lancashire remain
unbeaten all season to win
the County Championship.
The majestic CB Fry hits nine
hundreds to top the batting
averages. Bernard Bosanquet
befuddles batmen with his mystery googly
delivery. Meanwhile, just seven miles down the
road from Lord’s, a new shop opens up on Acton
Hill, West London - and it’s destined to start a
chain of events that more than a century later
is to have an equally significant impact on
English cricket.
From the humble beginnings of a single
grocery store run by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose
and David Taylor, Waitrose has grown to be one
of the country’s leading food retailers since
being taken on by the John Lewis Partnership in
1937. It’s a retailer that now has more than 300
outlets in England, Wales and Scotland, employs
in excess of 37,000 people and has an annual
turnover that tops £6 billion.
As an operation that aims to provide the
convenience of a supermarket with the expertise
of specialist shops, the Waitrose model has
proven a firm favourite across the UK, from
Abergavenny to York, and claimed a market share
of 4.9 per cent of the food sector in 2013.
It is that kind of success that enabled the
business to agree a landmark, three-year deal
with the England and Wales Cricket Board to
sponsor the England cricket teams – that’s the
women’s, Lions, under-19s and disability sides,
as well as the senior men – running from May
last year.
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Waitrose has already dipped its toe into
the world of sports sponsorship by backing
Championship football team Reading FC, a
partnership that began in 2008 and is still going
strong. But, as Paul Hogan, Head of Marketing at
Waitrose, explained, this agreement has already
been on a different level altogether and brought
a host of tangible benefits.
“Cricket is such a great game, our national
summer game, and it’s one that revolves around
food, drink and food moments,” he said. “You
stop for drinks, for lunch, for afternoon tea and
we’re a brand and a business that is all about
food and drink. It gives us a great opportunity
to share that passion for food and drink with
cricket fans across the UK, so our sponsorship
is the perfect fit.
“Whenever England play, we are on the shirts,
which is a fantastic honour and we’re extremely
proud of that. It’s a global sponsorship, with
England playing around the world. We trade in
over 46 countries worldwide and most of those
are cricket-playing nations. From the Caribbean
to South Africa, we are able to promote our
brand, raise awareness and help promote cricket.
“We have a customer base where over 70 per
cent are female and the women’s team are really
important to us as a way of reaching out and talking
to those customers. They are now professional,
playing really well and have some great young
players being led by Charlotte Edwards.
“This sponsorship opens up a whole
opportunity for us to talk about cricket at grass
roots level too. We have stores across the UK
and there are over 5,500 cricket clubs, so for
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waitrose
waitrose
Clockwise:
Waitrose, Official
Team Sponsor
adorns the Pavilion
at Trent Bridge;
Paul Hogan has a
clear vision of how
the food and drink
brand will use the
four-year deal to
good effect; the
Waitrose name
not only appears
on Alastair Cook’s
Test and warmup shirts, but all
forms of the game
– including the
England Women’s
side; Waitrose were
quick to throw their
support behind
Cricket United Day
in 2014
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us there is a real benefit of supporting the
community and in local cricket.”
There can be no doubting that unstinting
commitment to the village green game, already
demonstrated by Waitrose’s support on several
fronts. The England and Wales Cricket Trust’s
Small Grant Scheme was boosted by £100 each
time a four or six was registered across the
2014 home international summer – and some
2,365 of them were accrued across all formats.
Then there has been the backing of club open
days that saw 900 affiliated teams take part
in 2014. Clubs welcomed members of the local
community to have a go, watch some action and
meet new people, helped by £100 from Waitrose
to spend in store on catering.
Regular international cricket watchers will
also have spotted the in-ground activation hubs,
where there has been the opportunity to sample
and share products with customers old and
new. That’s not to mention, brand ambassador
and leading chef Heston Blumenthal designing
a pork pie with piccalilli that has gone down a
treat up and down the country.
With the Ashes back on the agenda in 2015,
“Whenever England play, we are on
the shirts, which is a fantastic honour
and we’re extremely proud of that. It’s
a global sponsorship - we trade in more
than 46 countries worldwide and most
of those are cricket-playing nations”
Waitrose has plenty more planned to make the
summer sizzle as the drive to engage gathers pace.
“We want to share people’s love of food and also
of cricket,” added Paul. “The Ashes is the highlight
of the cricket season, and one of the highlights of
the entire sporting calendar, so it represents a real
opportunity to connect with customers.
“We have lots of plans around food sampling
around the grounds, and we have competitions
and tickets to engage and explain to My
Waitrose loyalty card customers what cricket
is all about. We are also really excited about
the England team with the players they have.
They’re a young squad who are learning to
play together and hopefully it will be a great
summer of cricket – and, fingers crossed, we
will have the Ashes back at the end of it!”
Waitrose has given more than £14 million to
good causes through its Community Matters
initiative since 2008, and it’s this emphasis
on good causes that has helped the company
and the PCA to form a meaningful alliance.
The ongoing ambition of the players’ union to
help its members, young and old has really
struck a chord and Waitrose is wholeheartedly
behind the PCA Benevolent Fund, which assists
cricketers in need of a helping hand.
“What the PCA do through the Benevolent
Fund and supporting cricketers when they
finish is really important and it chimes
extremely well with the community work we
do,” explained Paul. “We can help with that
through our graduate training programmes,
where we can help cricketers find a career
outside of the game.
The access the PCA have to high-profile
former players has certainly not gone unnoticed
at Waitrose, providing them with an extra treat
for customers who have won competitions that
involve VIP tickets for international fixtures.
Paul explained: “During lunch, there is a
knock on the door of the box and someone like
Alec Stewart walks in. You see the faces of
our customers lighting up. They’ve then got 20
minutes talking about his life, cricket tales, the
match in progress and what he would have done
out there in the middle.
“It’s a fantastic thing that we can tap into at
every ground and it really makes the day for the
customers. It’s a way for us to give something
back because it’s a money can’t buy experience.”
The Waitrose brand was also emblazened
across the shirts of the PCA England Masters
as they toured the country in 2014 - something
Hogan was pleased to see.
“The PCA England Masters is great too.
Having been to a couple of events, we’ve seen
those guys in action and the work they do in the
local community is brilliant.
“The likes of Mark Ramprakash, Matthew
Hoggard and Dominic Cork have masses of
experience and are legends, so when they turn
up and play at a local club, it’s something really
special. That’s why we will be the PCA England
Masters’ shirt sponsors again for the coming
season and will support the PCA in their work
across as many channels as we can.”
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