Waitrose teams up with JLP to launch schoolwear

Waitrose is to test a back-to-school clothing range from stablemate John Lewis in 14 stores, in a first for the food chain.

The grocer has introduced 62 lines in selected stores to see how the category performs. If it is a success, Waitrose will roll it out to more stores in an effort to gain share of a market dominated by the likes of Marks & Spencer, Woolworths and George at Asda.

The range on offer includes back-to-school basics such as twinpack shirts, blouses, polo shirts and socks.

A Waitrose spokeswoman said: 'John Lewis has an excellent reputation for its offer on back to school, providing good quality and value. We want to see if some of the products do well within our supermarket environment.'

'The stores with the range were selected for their proximity to school catchment areas, but we wanted to keep it to a manageable number to assess customer reaction for next year.'

Waitrose is also researching other categories in non-food, but refused to say what is being considered. Hosiery is the only non-food area Waitrose currently offers.

Approximately£2.5 billion is spent annually on back-to- school products, and clothing accounts for almost£900 million of the total.

The back-to-school market has become increasingly competitive over the past few years.

Supermarket groups such as Asda and Tesco are grabbing a bigger slice, and M&S has struggled with its children's offer overall.