Waitrose & Partners has today unveiled plans to place its service counters centre stage in order to differentiate its offer from competitors.

The retailer is launching a pilot to raise the expertise of all Partners working on their service counters to an even higher level. Initially training 10 fishmongers and 10 butchers, the longer term ambition is to train a further 200 existing Partners over the next two years.

For the butchery course this will include detailed knowledge of a wide range of cuts of meat, cooking techniques and butchery skills. The fishmonger course will again include knowledge of a wide variety of species, sustainability and skilled filleting techniques.  Both elements will focus Partners on providing differentiated service across the counter offer.

The retailer has already begun the process of further developing knowledge and skills of over 200 existing Partners already working on its meat counters. The new training includes offering a more personalised service, more customisation of meat joints for individual customers and an increased focus on traditional butchery skills such as butchers’ knots, which allow flat pieces of meat to be turned into rolled joints using butcher’s twine.

Further training is also being deployed for Charcutiers this year for selected shops testing a new Deli range, and work is underway on a Cheesemonger programme.