By all accounts Waitrose had a good Olympics.
Sales of sushi soared on the back of the Sushi Daily partnership, a shop-in-shop concept available in larger stores; and heavy coverage of the Tokyo Olympics on BBC TV.
According to the Grocer, a UK trade magazine, Waitrose saw much heavier online shopper traffic to its ‘entertainment’ section where sushi was promoted.
The partnership with Sushi Daily is interesting, I have no inside details but it seems:-
- Sushi Daily are not exclusive to Waitrose. Asda also have some concessions as do several other retailers in Europe
- The founder has a long history in Japanese food – outside of Japan
- Given the wide range of Sushi on display, challenges of stock management and so on, it makes better business sense to outsource
- Are there any Japanese suppliers involved? Highly unlikely.