Waitrose has hired Prêt à Manger’s former head of coffee and product launches, Rebecca Hemsley, as its head of hospitality operations, thegrocer.co.uk reports.
She will succeed Jill Dewar, who has been appointed head of store format for John Lewis, the Waitrose chain’s parent company.
Waitrose invests time and money into making its supermarkets commodious and salubrious for its shoppers, and so its head of hospitality carries a large degree of responsibility. Holders of myWaitrose cards, for example, are given a free coffee when they spend £5 or more on a weekday (or £10 at weekends), and a free newspaper when they spend £60 or more.
Waitrose’s director of retail services, Helen Keppel-Compton, commented, “Rebecca brings a depth of food service experience that will be invaluable in supporting the successful development and delivery of our foodservice and hospitality offer, a key part of continuing to provide compelling reasons to shop at Waitrose.”
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
