Waitrose has mysteriously axed all Warburtons’ products including its much-loved crumpets sparking fury amongst customers who today vowed to shop elsewhere.
The baker, run by pro-Brexit Jonathan Warburton, sells 124million of the griddled teatime treats in the UK annually but these and other breads were all pulled from the supermarket’s shelves last year.
Sales of crumpets in the UK are up ten per cent year-on-year, but mysteriously Waitrose has axed its deal with the country’s biggest producer, Warburtons, at a time when the supermarket’s own crumpet sales reportedly fell by 15 per cent.
The supermarket has said the baker’s ‘performance didn’t meet their expectations’. Warburtons said: ‘Consumers recognise the quality. We would of course love to be back on their shelves in the future.’
The row has divided customers. Brexiteers claimed the middle-class supermarket’s decision ‘must be’ because its owner backed Britain leaving the EU while Remainers rejoiced, declaring: ‘Warburtons supported Brexit, made this country suffer. It’s only fair now they suffer’.
Robert De Niro starring in an advert with chairman of the baking business, Jonathan Warburton, who said Brexit would be good for Britain. Waitrose has pulled all its products over ‘performance’
This Waitrose customer says he will be shopping elsewhere, namely Sainsbury’s
One social media user was among those who insisted Brexit was a factor
Another customer said that they ‘completely disagree’ with the decision
Jonathan Warburton: Fifth generation Bolton baker who’s built his family firm into Britain’s biggest bakery brand
Bakery boss Jonathan Warburton in one of their ads
Warburton’s began in 1876 when Ellen Warburton started making bread in the grocery shop she ran with her husband, Thomas, in Bolton.
The current chairman, Jonathan, is in the fifth generation of the family and has held the position of chairman since 2001.
The 65-year-old began his career at other businesses, including consumer goods giant Unilever, before joining the family firm aged 23. In 1991 he gained full control of the business along with his cousins, Brett and Ross, after their fathers retired.
As chair, he’s been credited with overseeing the company’s transition into the nation’s biggest bakery brand. According to a company biography, he’s a keen skier and golfer, and has four children with his wife, Kim.
In 2021, he achieved unlikely fame when he appeared in an advert alongside George Clooney. Other stars to have appeared in the company’s ads include Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro.
One customer tweeted Waitrose to say: ‘I completely disagree with your decision to delist @Warburtons products. Their excellent crumpets are a nation’s favourite’. But another pointed out: ‘There MUST be a Brexit angle to this, surely?’ One more customer said: ‘@waitrose having a spat with @Warburtons – will be shopping at Sainsbury’s then. Ain’t doing without!’
Critics have raised the politics of the Bolton bakery’s owner, who after the 2016 Brexit referendum declared: ‘Brexit is a very good thing to have happened’.
Mr Warburton, who stars in its adverts alongside George Clooney, Robert De Niro and The Muppets, also agreed the company could make a £25,000 donation to the Conservative Party in 2010.
Some have vowed to boycott Waitrose completely over a row rumbling on for a year that is reminiscent of a 2022 dispute between Tesco and Heinz that saw baked beans and ketchup disappear from the shelves.
One social media user shared a Waitrose post from 2022, they claim has been deleted. The post says that fewer Warburtons products were being stocked because other products were more popular.
Waitrose has been bombarded with messages on social media about why Warburtons’ bread and associated products are no longer on offer.
MailOnline has asked both Waitrose and Warburtons to comment.
Sources on both sides said it was for commercial reasons, not Britain leaving the EU.
But some Remainers have delighted in the decision – having campaigned for Waitrose and other supermarkets to stop stocking Warburtons due to its Brexit-backing boss.
One said: ‘This is totally deserved. Warburtons supported Brexit, made this country suffer. It’s only fair now they suffer as much or more than the rest of us for it. Their customers have spoken. #RejoinEU’.
Another tweeted: ‘I’m delighted to read that have withdrawn all Warburtons products from its shelves as they were ‘below expectations’. Mind you, I’d prefer that they weren’t stocked at all, as Warburtons were brexit supporters’.
One remainer said sarcastically: ‘That would be the same Warburtons that supports Brexit? What a shame’.
Waitrose this weekend claimed that Warburtons’ ‘performance didn’t meet our expectations’, in a rebuke which caused the bakery’s chairman Jonathan Warburton to call the removal of his products from the shelves of stores across the country ‘a shame’.
One Twitter user shared this post from Facebook, claiming it was deleted, where Waitrose said ‘other brands are proving more popular’
Remainers celebrated the decision because the boss of Warburtons supported Brexit
Others begged for their favorites to return
Dame Sharon White: Pioneering businesswoman voted Britain’s most influential black person who chairs the John Lewis Partnership – Waitrose’s ultimate owner
Sharon White chairs the John Lewis Partnership, which is the owner of Waitrose
The John Lewis Partnership – which owns Waitrose – appointed Sharon White as the first ever female chairwoman in its 157-year history in 2019.
White left her job as chief executive of Ofcom to take over from former chairman of the retailer Sir Charlie Mayfield at the beginning of 2020.
Cambridge-educated Ms White was the first black person to become Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.
In interviews she’s recalled how – when she began there in the 90s – the only other black women were ‘cleaning loos’.
Ms White is married to Robert Chote, who is head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, with whom she has two children. The couple have been repeatedly dubbed ‘Mr and Mrs Treasury’.
The mother-of-two was rumoured to be in the running to become the next Governor of the Bank of England, a £480,000-a-year role.
After becoming Second Permanent Secretary in 2013, The Voice named Ms White as the seventh most powerful black person in Britain.
She was born to Jamaican immigrant parents and was brought up in Leyton, east London, where she went to a state secondary school.
Ms White graduated from Cambridge with an economics degree before studying for her Master’s at University College London.
Recently, she’s complained about the John Lewis Group’s lagging performance and warned staff may lose their bonus.
Shoppers have express their anger and demanded the products return to their shelves, claiming that own brand crumpets and rival Hovis’ are not to the same standard.
The supermarket still holds products from Buckinghamshire-based Hovis, Warburton’s biggest competitor.
It leaves Waitrose isolated among top grocers, with rival supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s still stocking Warburtons products.
It is likely to heap pressure on Waitrose boss James Bailey, who has struggled to prevent the supermarket losing ground to rivals.
Areport found Waitrose’s share of the grocery market at the end of December had fallen to 4.7 per cent from 5.1 per cent a year earlier.
A Warburtons spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘At Warburtons quality is paramount. We put an awful lot of care into the 2million products we bake and deliver to over 19,000 stores across the country every single day.
‘We know that consumers recognise the quality, and value of our products and that is why we are the number one bakery brand in the UK.
‘It is a shame that Waitrose chose to delist us last year and we would of course love to be back on their shelves in the future.’
A Waitrose spokesman said: ‘We stopped selling Warburtons products a year ago after their performance didn’t meet our expectations.
‘We focus on fantastic products at great value that our customers love and we remain open to working with Warburtons in the future.’
Reacting to the move, furious shoppers tweeted: ‘Oh gosh @waitrose – please don’t let @Warburtons go. They’ve always been delicious whenever I’ve bought them #crumpets’.
Another said: ‘@waitrose I completely disagree with your decision to delist @Warburtons products. Among others their excellent crumpets are a Nation’s favourite & their Wholemeal ”no added sugar” sliced loaf is perfect, just two examples of their superior quality products. Please reconsider’.
A third tweeted: ‘@Warburtons @Waitrose sorry to hear about your falling out with Waitrose – I’m going to miss your products’.
Warburtons was founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 and is based in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remains a family-owned company.
The company – which currently employs almost 5,000 members of staff – embarked on a large expansion program in the late 1990s which continued in the 2000s and it has grown across the UK after being relatively unheard of outside the Bolton and Manchester area.
Waitrose said: ‘We stopped selling Warburtons products a year ago after their performance didn’t meet our expectations. We focus on fantastic products at great value that our customers love and we remain open to working with Warburtons in the future.’
The supermarket product wars that have divided customers
Heinz vs Tesco
Last year, Tesco pulled Heinz baked beans and ketchup from its shelves across the UK.
The US food manufacturer had paused the supply of its items in a row that raised questions over who should bear the biggest cost in the current economic climate.
Tesco had said it ‘will not pass on unjustifiable price increases to our customers’.
In a joint statement, the companies said: ‘Tesco and Heinz are pleased to have reached an agreement that will see the full range of Heinz products return to Tesco shelves and online, continuing to offer our customers great value on the nation’s favourite Heinz varieties.
‘Lorries full of Heinz products including Heinz Tomato Ketchup and Heinz Beanz will hit the road shortly, and Tesco colleagues will be working hard to ensure shelves are filled again over the coming days.’
Marmite vs Tesco
In 2016, Tesco axed a range of Unilever products from its shelves, including Marmite.
Tesco fought moves by Unilever to raise its prices in the UK to compensate for the sharp drop in the pound’s value.
Unilever’s finance chief said such price increases are a ‘normal’ reaction to shifts in currency values.
A deal was reached within 24 hours of that row going public after the share price of both companies fell.
Colgate vs Tesco
Also last year, Colgate began disappearing from Tesco shelves after a similar fall-out with US consumer products giant Colgate-Palmolive.
Last year it was Britain’s sixth biggest food and beverage brand, ahead of McVities, Birds Eye and Pepsi, according to consultancy Nielsen.
In recent years, it has tried to stem the drop in sales from its packaged bread products with new bagel and wrap categories.
Famously, it hired US actor Robert De Niro to appear as the mafia-style Bagel Boss for its advertising.
The row between Waitrose and Warburtons is likely to draw parallels betwen the spat between Tesco and Heinz last year, when Heinz baked beans and ketchup were pulled from the shelves after attempts by the US brand to increase prices were ignored by the supermarket.
Jars of Marmite were pulled from Tesco shelves in 2016 as the supermarket resisted an attempt by Unilever to raise wholesale prices.