Update: John Lewis official Olympic retail partner

The sponsorship deal does not include the Partnership’s grocery store chain Waitrose.

As part of the sponsorship with the London Organising committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), John Lewis will open two flagship Olympic stores which will sell Olympic merchandise in its Oxford Street store and its yet to be opened store at Olympic Park Stratford.

The 5,000 sq ft concessions will sell a number of bespoke Olympics branded products only available to John Lewis customers.

John Lewis will also help to furnish lounge and reception areas at Olympic venues and provide warehouse space for Games operations as well as offering its staff the opportunity to volunteer their time to work at LOCOG in preparation to the Games.

The retailer is a Tier Three sponsor of the Games, which usually equates to a £10m “budget relieving value in kind” deal. Other Tier Three supporters are: GlaxoSmithKline and TicketMaster.

Andy Street, John Lewis managing director says that the Olympic sponsorship is on top of normal marketing activity and expects a lot of the chain’s marketing activity in the run up and throughout the Games will be associated with the Olympics.

John Lewis has also launched “partners in Sport” an initiative to encourage its partners to get involved in sports and is sponsoring seven Olympic hopefuls who are either partners of related to partners.

LOCOG is also looking to sign up additional retail sponsors. but these are unlikely to be in the grocery sector due to the veto power held by the international sponsor Coca Cola.

Sebastian Coe says its commercial partnerships are not just about marketing spend but are about bringing “smart, creative people and business into the Games”.

John Lewis has just reported record sales for the five weeks up to 2 January with sales up 15.8%.

Other Sponsors of the Games include EDF Energy, Cadbury and Adidas.