Waitrose lures Sainsbury's chief for new loyalty revamp

Waitrose has raided Sainsbury’s to bring in its first ever head of loyalty as the upmarket supermarket gears up to relaunch the MyWaitrose programme later this year.

Alex Lovell has been at Sainsbury’s for nearly 12 years, during which time she has been head of brand growth, head of loyalty and most recently customer director of its Smart Charge EV business.

Prior to Sainsbury’s Lovell worked at Aimia Inc on FMCG accounts.

The newly created role of head of loyalty at Waitrose will see Lovell report to customer director Nathan Ansell. The former Marks & Spencer marketing director was hired in 2022 to help develop Waitrose multichannel strategy and put lifetime customer loyalty at the heart of its proposition.

Exact details of the MyWaitrose relaunch have been kept under wraps, although it is fair to say the scheme has had more facelifts than a fading Hollywood star.

There is also the small matter of a wider relaunch of the loyalty programmes across both Waitrose and John Lewis, including a roll out of a combined loyalty scheme first trialled back in 2018.

In 2023, the Partnership appointed Tesco’s head of loyalty strategy, Emily Wells, as its first group head of loyalty, working across John Lewis, John Lewis Finance and Waitrose.

Wells ha bdeen briefed to develop and launch a group loyalty proposition in 2024 as well as the MyWaitrose and My John Lewis loyalty programmes and teams. This has yet to materialise.

Ansell said: “I am delighted to welcome Alex as our head of loyalty for Waitrose. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this role, most notably from her time as head of loyalty for Sainsbury’s and Argos where she has a track record of delivering innovative, customer and commercially led change across grocery retail.

“Alex has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities of loyalty in the grocery sector, and we’re thrilled for her to join us here at Waitrose.”