Interbrand and JHP rebrand Waitrose

Waitrose will launch a revamped identity and redesigned interior signage in the autumn, created by Interbrand and JHP, Design Week can exclusively reveal.

JHP has created the concept for the identity, which is being developed by Interbrand, and is working on retail signage. The signage was subject to a one-day pilot at Waitrose’s Birch Hill branch in Bracknell last month.

‘JHP is doing the retail interior signage and retail graphics. Interbrand is doing the identity. Concept work [for the identity] was borne out of ideas by JHP and has been developed and enhanced by Interbrand. The concept came out of signage work by JHP. Interbrand is pulling together all of the strings into a proper corporate affair,’ says John Lewis Partnership design consultant Douglas Cooper.

The launch of the identity and signage will coincide with the opening of four new Waitrose stores in Cheltenham, Canary Wharf, Tonbridge and Chandlers Ford in the autumn.

The identity and signage will then be applied to all new store openings thereafter and across existing stores in a ‘gradual roll-out programme’, says Cooper.

JHP and Interbrand were appointed last year and neither was asked to pitch competitively.

‘Interbrand had been doing a branding concept for the Perfectly Balanced [food] range. It [was invited] to provide a fee proposal on the basis of working up the concept created by JHP. JHP was doing some work on our Belgravia branch. The concept came out of signage work it did on that branch,’ says Cooper.

The existing Waitrose identity was created by Newell and Sorrell in 1988. Waitrose is part of the John Lewis Partnership.