Who owns Waitrose?

The people who work there do, through a trust rather than through shares they can sell.

Waitrose is part of the John Lewis Partnership, the business that also runs John Lewis department stores. The Partnership is not listed on the stock market in the way Tesco or Sainsbury’s are, and no private equity fund sits above it. Its shares are held by a trust company on behalf of everyone employed in the business, who are called Partners.

That answer needs one qualification. A Partner does not own a slice of Waitrose they could sell or pass on. The trust holds the shares for Partners collectively, and what an individual Partner gets from the ownership is a say through the Partnership’s elected bodies and a share of profits in years when a bonus is paid.

What does the register show?

The ownership chain runs up through four companies, and Companies House shows each link.

Waitrose Limited is company number 00099405, incorporated on 3 September 1908 and registered at 1 Drummond Gate, Pimlico, London. Its person with significant control is John Lewis plc, which holds 75% or more of the shares and votes and has the right to appoint and remove directors.

John Lewis plc is company number 00233462, incorporated on 20 September 1928. Its person with significant control is John Lewis Partnership plc, again with 75% or more of the shares and votes.

John Lewis Partnership plc is company number 00238937, incorporated on 23 April 1929. Its person with significant control is John Lewis Partnership Trust Limited, with 75% or more of the shares and votes.

John Lewis Partnership Trust Limited is company number 00481406, incorporated on 24 April 1950. This is where the chain stops. The trust company’s own register records its voting control as held by the Partnership’s Chairman, currently Jason Tarry, notified on 12 September 2024, the day his predecessor Dame Sharon White’s entry ceased. It does not lead to an outside owner.

How does a trust own a supermarket?

Through two documents signed by John Spedan Lewis, the son of the John Lewis who founded the department store. In the First Trust Settlement of 1929 he transferred his shares in the business to trustees, so that profits would go to the people working in it rather than to him. In the Second Trust Settlement of 1950 he handed over his remaining shares and ultimate control to a new company, John Lewis Partnership Trust Limited — the same company that sits at the top of the register today.

The Partnership describes the trust company as the body that safeguards its constitution and says it holds the Partnership’s shares in trust for all Partners. Day-to-day control rests with the Chairman, who chairs the Partnership Board and answers to the Partnership Council, a body elected by Partners, twice a year.

Waitrose joined that structure later. It began as a grocer’s shop in Acton in 1904, took the name Waitrose from two of its founders, Wallace Waite and Arthur Rose, in 1908, and joined the John Lewis Partnership in October 1937, when it had 10 shops and 160 staff.

Do the Partners get a share of the profits?

In some years. The Partnership Bonus is a share of profit paid to every Partner as a percentage of pay, and whether it is paid depends on how the business has done.

It has been patchy recently. In 2021, during the pandemic, the Partnership skipped the bonus for the first time since 1953. It paid 3% in 2022, then nothing for the next three years. In March 2026 it announced a 2% bonus for the year to 31 January 2026, which it said was worth about an extra week’s pay. At the half-year in September 2026, it set the bonus for the first six months of 2026/27 at nil.

Has anyone tried to change the ownership?

It was discussed, and it did not happen. In 2023 there were reports that the then Chairman, Dame Sharon White, was exploring selling a minority stake to an outside investor to raise new money, which would have ended 100% employee ownership. The idea met strong opposition inside the business. In May 2023 she told the Partnership Council that the Partnership “will always be an employee-owned business” and that there was no question of demutualisation, and she survived a confidence vote at the same meeting.

Jason Tarry, formerly chief executive of Tesco’s UK and Ireland business, succeeded her as the Partnership’s seventh Chairman in September 2024. The Partnership’s full-year results in March 2026 and its half-year results in September 2026 both describe it as the UK’s largest employee-owned business, and neither announcement mentions any plan to bring in outside shareholders.

How big is Waitrose?

The Partnership’s annual report for the year to the end of January 2026 puts Waitrose at 318 supermarkets and convenience shops in the UK and the Channel Islands. Its half-year results in September 2026 put the figure at over 320 shops and said two new full-size supermarkets, in Hale Barns and Cricklewood, would open later this year.

Waitrose food also reaches people outside its own shops. It sells through agreements with Welcome Break and Shell, and Waitrose shops take orders on Deliveroo. It is no longer on Ocado: Ocado sold Waitrose groceries for about nineteen years, until the arrangement ended in September 2020 and Ocado switched to Marks & Spencer.

Is Waitrose independent?

Not by our verified independent badge, which marks a locally and privately owned business rather than a chain, franchise or private-equity estate. Waitrose is a national chain of more than 300 shops, so an individual Waitrose is a branch of a large business, not a proprietor-owned local.

But who owns it is still a real difference. There is no stock-market shareholder and no buyout fund taking the profit; the owners are the people who work there, through the trust. That makes Waitrose a close cousin of the member-owned co-operatives, such as Lincolnshire Co-op, and the opposite of a private-equity supermarket like Morrisons. The useful label is national chain, employee-owned. Who owns every big UK supermarket sets Waitrose next to the other big names so you can see the difference.

Questions people ask

Is Waitrose owned by John Lewis?

Yes, in the sense that both belong to the same business. Waitrose Limited is owned by John Lewis plc, which is owned by John Lewis Partnership plc. John Lewis department stores and Waitrose are the Partnership’s two retail brands.

Do Waitrose staff own the company?

Collectively, through a trust. John Lewis Partnership Trust Limited holds the Partnership’s shares on behalf of all Partners. Individual Partners cannot buy or sell shares, but they elect representatives to the Partnership Council, which holds the Chairman to account, and they share in the Partnership Bonus when one is paid.

Does Ocado still sell Waitrose?

No. Ocado’s arrangement with Waitrose ended in September 2020, and Ocado now sells Marks & Spencer food. Waitrose runs its own online shop.

Last checked 23 September 2026. This article uses the Companies House records and persons-with-significant-control registers for Waitrose Limited (company 00099405), John Lewis plc (00233462), John Lewis Partnership plc (00238937) and John Lewis Partnership Trust Limited (00481406); the Partnership’s own account of its governance, its trust settlements and its history; its full-year results of 12 March 2026, its 2025/26 annual report and its half-year results of 10 September 2026; contemporary reporting of the bonus history, the 2023 outside-investment discussion and Jason Tarry’s appointment; and the 2020 end of the Ocado supply arrangement. What is not claimed: an exact current headcount of Partners; that no class of the Partnership’s shares or stock is held outside the trust, since the register reports only a 75%-or-more band; and an exact live shop count, which moves. If you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.