Sainsbury company profile

Company history

The company was founded by John James Sainsbury and Mary Ann Sainsbury in 1869. They
located their headquarters in London, the United Kingdom.
Sainsbury was established as a partnership in 1869 when John James Sainsbury and his wife
Mary Ann opened a store at 173 Drury Lane in Holborn, London. He started as a retailer of
fresh foods and later expanded as a packaged grocery.

In 1922, J Sainsbury incorporated as a private company and it became the UK's largest
grocery group. During the 1930s and 1940s the company was run by John Benjamin Sainsbury
and continued to refine product offerings and maintain its leadership in terms of store design,
convenience and cleanliness. In 1936, the company obtained the Midlands-based through
good chain.

However, in 1938 John Benjamin Sainsbury died due to a minor heart attack and both of his
sons Alan Sainsbury and Robert Sainsbury took his place and became joint managing director
of Sainsbury’s. In 1956 his son, Alan Sainsbury became the chairman. In 1950 to 1960s
Sainsbury’s developed self-service supermarkets in the UK and this will be the future of
Sainsbury. The first self-service branch opened in Croydon in 1950.

In addition, the company went public on 12 July 1973, J Sainsbury plc, the company was fully
owned by the Sainsbury family. At that time, it was the largest flotation on the London Stock
Exchange and the company rewarded the smaller bids for shares to attract as many
shareholders as possible. Also, during that time the Sainsbury family retained 85% of the
firm’s shares. The hysterical pressure isolated the flotation greatly enhanced the company’s
new dynamic reputation. Unlike Tesco, Sainsbury grew organically rather than by takeovers
and they did not need to use its shares as an acquisition currency.

The member of the fourth generation, John Devan Sainsbury, took over the chairmanship in
1969 after the retirement of both of his uncles Robert and Alan Sainsbury. To participate in
the hypermarket sector, Sainsbury formed a joint venture, known as Sava Centre with British
Home Stores. In 1977, the first Sava Centre was opened in Washington, Tyne and Wear. As
the hypermarket format became more mainstream, with rivals such as Asda and Tesco
launching ever-larger stores, it was decided that a separate brand was no longer needed and
the stores were changed to the regular Sainsbury’s superstore format in 1999. The company's
growth was still largely based on food, with only a fair contribution from the Sava Centre
business. In 1985, the chairman reported that over the preceding ten years profits had grown
from £15 million to over £168 million, a total annual rise of 30.4% after inflation.

In 1980, the company invested in new technology in which the proportion of sales passing
through EPOS scanning checkouts rose from 1% to 90%. Moreover, Sainsbury expanded its
operation into Scotland with a store in Darnley opening in January 1992. In June 1995
Sainsbury announced plans to move into the Northern Ireland market. In December 1996 to
December 1998 the company opened seven new stores. Two others at Sprucefield, Lilburn
and Hollywood Exchange. Whereas, at Belfast it opened in 2003.
Furthermore, Sainsbury’s outlets were all new developments, whereas Tesco purchased
existing chains from associated British Foods. In 1991, the group boasted a 12 years record of
dividend increases of 20% or more and earnings per share had risen by as much for nearly as
long.

In 1992, John Davan Sainsbury retired and was replaced by his cousin David Sainsbury as the
new chairman and chief executive. The management style is then changed. Mistakes by David
and his successors Dino, Adriano and Peter Davis which includes the miss treatment of
suppliers resulting them to be unfavorable and the suppliers are more likely to willingly supply
for Tesco, and the unsuccessful John Cleese advertising campaign.

At the end of 1993 it announced price cuts on 300 of its most popular own-label lines. A few
months later Sainsbury announced that margins had fallen, pace of new superstore
construction slowed down, and it would write down the value of some properties.

Sainsbury had been the market leader in the UK supermarket sector, but in 1996 Tesco took
over the title as the UK’s largest grocer. Also, in 1996 the company reported its first fall in
profits for 22 years. David Sainsbury announced management changes, involving the
appointment of two chief executives, Dino Adriano and David Bremmer which will be
responsible for UK supermarkets, and homebased and the US respectively.

In 1998, David Sainsbury resigned from the company to continue his career in politics. He was
appointed as non-executive chairman by George Bull and Adriano was promoted to be the
group chief executive. End of March 2004 Davis was promoted to chairman and was replaced
as CEO by Justin King. King ordered a direct mail campaign to 1 million Sainsbury’s customers
asking for feedback and reviews to improve the company. Recently in October 2009, since the
launch of King’s recovery program the company has reported nineteen consecutive quarters
of sales growth. There is more increase in revenue, hence the company has to put down the
price cuts and focus on fresh and healthy food.

In May 2007 Sainsbury identified five areas of growth which are growth of non-food ranges,
opening of new convenience stores, growth of online home delivery and banking operations,
expansion of supermarket space through new stores, and development of the
company’s “largely underdeveloped store portfolio” and “active property management”.

On 25 April 2007 Delta Two, a Qatari investment company, bought a 14% stake in Sainsbury’s
resulting its share price to increase 7.17%, which was then upped to 17.6%. Their interest in
Sainsbury’s is thought to center on its property portfolio. In June 2007 they extended their
stake to 25%. On 5 November 2007 it was informed that the Delta Two had abandoned its
takeover bid due to the “deterioration of credit markets” and concerns about funding the
company’s pension scheme.

In March 2009 Sainsbury’s introduced their purchases of 24 stores from The Co-operative, 22
of which were Somerfield stores and the remaining 2 were Co-op stores. In June 2009 a
further 9 stores were purchased from The Co-operative. These were concentrated in west
Wales, the north of England and Scotland where Sainsbury’s market share is low.
In May 2010 Justin King announced that Sainsbury’s pledged to involve each of its 850 stores
in the promotion of the Paralympics after the multimillion-pound deal with Locog to be the
main sponsor of the London 2012 Paralympic games. Sainsbury’s will sell Paralympic
merchandise and become involved in high-profile events such as the torch relay.

In September 2011 they changed their slogan from “Try Something New Today” to “Live Well
for Less”, The slogan will be phased in, and will be prominent on till receipts from 16
September. On 30 November 2011 Sainsbury’s reached the first milestone in its 2020 vision
by opening its 1000th store in Irvine, Scotland. To celebrate this, Sainsbury’s doubled its staff
discount to 20% for the first 4 days of December.

Vision and Mission

Vision- to be the most trusted retailer, where shopping and working are more enjoyable.
Meaning to tackle the talent, creativity and diversity of our workmate ensuring to provide
great customer service.

Mission- To be the customer’s first choice for food, delivering products of outstanding quality
and great service at a competitive cost through working faster, simpler and together.

Products/ Services offered

Offer fresh food, groceries, general merchandise and clothing from suppliers around the
world. Customer can buy it from their online store services with the same quality, freshness
and choice that customer can find in store.