John Lewis Partnership plc annual report and accounts 2012

‘The Waitrose way’ is:

• Championing British –We believe in always bringing people home-grown food and produce at its very best, celebrating the British food season and working with the best local and regional suppliers.

• Treading Lightly –We believe in making the right choices for the environment by reducing packaging, waste, water and CO2 emissions, and sourcing our food and raw materials responsibly. At Waitrose, product stewardship and maintaining the highest levels of agricultural and environmental management are our key focus at home and abroad. We look closely at our operational impact on the environment and ask all own-label suppliers to reduce their business footprint too.

• Treating people fairly –We believe in treating our customers, Partners, farmers and suppliers fairly as well as supporting local charities and community groups through our Community Matters and Partner volunteering schemes.

• Living well –We believe that eating well should be enjoyable. We provide a wide range of imaginative and nutritious choices to inspire people to eat more healthily and are ahead of targets for salt reduction.

John Lewis ‘Bringing Quality to Life’ is:

• A better way of doing business – Bringing quality to life through a better way of doing business, from our unique Partnership structure to our commitment to reducing our impact on the environment.

• Encouraging sustainable living – Bringing quality to life through the products and services we sell by ensuring they are responsibly made and by helping customers choose and use them in ways that are more sustainable.

• Community links – Bringing quality to life through the communities we touch, whether local to our shops or to our suppliers throughout the world.

These areas of ‘The Waitrose way’ and ‘Bringing Quality to Life’ collectively address the areas which matter most to the Partnership and its stakeholders:

• Our people (our Partners);

• Our customers, products and suppliers;

• Our communities;

• Our environment.

Customers, products and suppliers

The Partnership’s vision is for long term sustainable trading. We are committed to selling responsibly sourced products, dealing fairly with suppliers, engaging with and acting in the interests of our customers and providing excellent value and unrivalled customer service.

In 2011 Waitrose came first in Which? magazine’s supermarket survey of over 12,000 shoppers and John Lewis was voted Britain’s favourite retailer for the fourth year running by retail analysts Verdict.

The Partnership works with over 5,000 suppliers to sell quality products, supported by ethical and environmental standards and policies, paying them a fair price and helping them to reinvest in their businesses.

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