The End
Published: 24 December 2008 13:56:30
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Minus 5 centimetres.
As measured by Wickes metal tape measure at 7.30am on Wednesday 24th December 2008, when compared to girth measurement taken with same metal measuring tape on 1st January 2008
To marathon runners, olympic cyclists and supertanker owners, 5cms may not seem like much. But to snails, millimetres and me, 5cms is a great deal. There was great rejoicing in the Waitrose Nutri...
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My penultimate blog!
Published: 22 December 2008 15:55:14
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I spent most of the weekend in bed or asleep recovering from my cold, which I do seem incapable of shaking off. I did however phone around a number of our branches on Saturday afternoon to see how they were faring. I'm delighted to say the build up to Christmas has well and truly begun and our business increased by 12% on the week before - Sunday alone was almost 20% up compared to the previous ...
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Digestion matters
Published: 18 December 2008 18:48:19
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Have you ever played that game where you imagine who you would most like to have at a dinner party? Well my fantasy became reality last night when I was invited to dinner at Clarance House by his Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. Sitting on my right was Jonathan Porritt, a man whose intellect I've admired for many years, and there were a number of other luminaries around the table who'd been b...
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Sad day
Published: 15 December 2008 17:42:37
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My weekend started well on Friday evening when I took the family for an Indian meal at the Tamarind Tree, which yet again was first rate. However the day ended badly with the news our Banstead branch was on fire - unfortunately the branch was totally destroyed that night. Kevin Sharkey, the Duty Manager, did a first rate job with the rest of the team in evacuating the shop, and as a consequence ...
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Nottingham opens for business!
Published: 11 December 2008 17:41:21
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I’m writing my blog today from the middle of our new Convenience shop in Trinity Square Nottingham. I travelled up to the City last night after attending the Waitrose Carol Concert, sung beautifully by our musically talented Partners. Dinner was just a mince pie, some mulled wine and a sandwich on the M40 so this morning I was in fighting form and ready for my breakfast - fantastic fresh coffee ...
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Pork in peril
Published: 08 December 2008 18:40:49
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I have to confess that I do enjoy either a bacon or sausage breakfast at the weekends. Imagine my dismay when I heard on the radio that all pork products had been stripped from the shelves of UK supermarkets following a suspected dioxin contamination of animal feed in Ireland? As a consequence the Irish government moved quickly to stop exports. Given the relish with which the broadcast media ta...
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Chiswick and Clapham open for business!
Published: 05 December 2008 18:12:19
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On Wednesday evening I attended a dinner where James Harding, Editor of The Times, gave a gloomy but thought provoking speech. The meal beforehand was my first Christmas dinner of the year - smoked salmon, turkey and trimmings, Christmas pudding and mince pies - I skipped the pudding and pies! I stayed in London that night as I needed to be at the opening of our excellent new Chiswick shop for 8...
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Lies, damned lies...
Published: 02 December 2008 11:21:28
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I have a huge amount of respect for the Guardian City Editor, Julia Finch, who I’m very much looking forward to having lunch with tomorrow. I will be quizzing her however over how the Guardian could have published today a snippet of ‘news’ from Sainsbury’s, run by that cheeky chappy and political guru (ref. his appearance on BBC’s Question Time) CEO of Sainsbury’s Justin King. They are now claim...
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Feeling very Christmassy
Published: 01 December 2008 17:42:32
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I spent the weekend at home, preparing for the Waitrose board meeting this morning and catching up with family on Sunday. While Judith took Lily to a swimming lesson, I took Holly for a well deserved McDonald's breakfast combined with a trip to pick up the Sunday papers. I dressed quickly but could not find my favourite moth-eaten blue jumper which quite appropriately Judith had resinged to the ...
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Edgware Road
Published: 28 November 2008 12:35:43
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Yesterday started early with a dash to London on the train to arrive in good time for the opening of our latest Waitrose at the site of a former Woolworths flagship store in Edgward Road. The branch looks wonderful and had a great first day of trading, boding well for our next 3 openings before Christmas in Clapham Junction, Chiswick and Nottingham. After an interview with the witty Mark Potter,...
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VAT
Published: 26 November 2008 16:18:39
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Which today stands not for Value Added Tax but for Very Aggressive Timetable, seeing that we have to do a huge amount of work to pass on the full VAT rebate to our customers. As you probably know, most food does not attract VAT but we've decided to bundle up the amount that accrues on the little that we sell into making major reductions on lines our customers regularly buy, so they really feel th...
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Yala!
Published: 24 November 2008 13:25:48
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As I enter the last month of my blog I am constantly amazed at the number of people who read it and mention it to me. When I arrived in my office this morning I had a letter from Geoffrey Morton-Haworth with a copy of his book Yala: How To Manage Complex Relationships. Geoffrey is currently living on a sailing boat in Guatemala. He wrote to tell me that his wife was a keen fan of the blog and e...
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Busy times
Published: 19 November 2008 16:01:34
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I'm a little late in blogging this week in spite of the fact that I've been in Bracknell for three days however I've had constant back-to-back meetings which has not allowed me ten minutes to set down my thoughts. Interestingly I'm still asked by people if I'm writing the blog myself, to which I always reply who else knows what I eat, where I go or what I do? Of course I write it myself!
I ...
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An Excellent Curry
Published: 14 November 2008 15:29:21
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I am delighted to say that Sir Don Curry is joining the Waitrose team as Chairman of the Leckford Estate. Sir Don, a farmer of many years, came to the public's attention in 2001 when he was Chair of the Policy Commission of the Future of Farming and Food and is one of the country's leading lights on all things agricultural. Don has very kindly agreed to work with us on ensuring that Waitrose mai...
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Curious news
Published: 13 November 2008 16:59:43
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Last night I stayed at the Court Hotel in Yeovil, a very pleasant establishment where I enjoyed a steak dinner with Nigel Keen, our Director of Development. I joined him for breakfast before the opening of our new shop in Crewkerne, and almost choked on my toast as I read in disbelief that Sainsburys are allegedly taking customers from Waitrose. That certainly doesn't reflect the market data I ...
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Our 194th branch
Published: 12 November 2008 16:01:09
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As anticipated, Tuesday was hectic, starting with meetings with Group H Branch Managers in Tunbridge Wells at 9am, then a dash to London to brief our elected and non-elected directors on our business plan over a sandwich lunch. After the briefing I met the urbane John Ayling of John Ayling Associates to discuss something we might do with the The Lord's Taverners cricket charity next year. My ne...
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Caught in a trap
Published: 10 November 2008 14:16:09
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A number of you have asked about how my "No So Chubby" programme is going. For those of you who are scientifically minded I would say my waistline has been working in clear and opposite correlation to the economic conditions. For those of you would-be artists, you should know that by recording what I eat and drink I've been able to discover the foods that have the greatest impact on my girth. T...
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Waitrose Foundation
Published: 04 November 2008 13:30:03
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Monday proved to be another busy day with a Waitrose board meeting followed by a dash to London for a sandwich lunch and Group Executive meeting all afternoon. I then made my way to the House of Commons for 5.30pm because, thanks to the kind offices of Michael Fabricant MP, Waitrose is this week exhibiting the work of the Waitrose Foundation in the Upper Waiting Hall. We held a reception to open...
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Westfield
Published: 31 October 2008 17:30:37
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You may have noticed in the papers and TV news that the new Westfield shopping centre opened yesterday in west London to much critical acclaim. I am delighted to say that Waitrose has a shop in the new centre which looks absolutely fabulous, if I may say so myself. One of the new innovations there is our New York deli-style cheese, meat, patisserie and ready-to-eat counter, which was enthusiasti...
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A lot of fish
Published: 29 October 2008 20:29:46
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Although Barcelona was wet and windy our spirits were not dampened and were certainly lifted by a visit to the Boqueria
Market, which is outstanding, and also by some excellent tapas. I thought the Gaudi Cathedral, park and houses were truly inspiring but don't expect to see that style in any Waitrose soon! As you might expect, coming back from a weeks holiday has meant me ploughing through a m...
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