Introduction and History of Sainsburys

John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury established Sainsbury’s in 1869 which grew rapidly and become the largest grocery retailer in 1922 and also become the first self-service retailing in the UK and had its most successful time during the 1980s. Its Britain’s longest standing major food retailing chain. The founder’s principles and values guide us strongly today as they did at the outset – to be the customer’s first choice for food shopping by providing high quality products, value for money and excellent service.

As a business we are determined to achieve our goal, which is:

“At Sainsbury’s we will bring an ever improving quality shopping knowledge for our customers with great product at fair prices. We will exceed customer opportunity for healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food making their lives easier every day” (www.jsainsbury.co.uk )

This means we are firm on quality and customer happiness in a way that brings this to life in a present and very different world.To support us in achieving our goal we have six colleagues’ values and we have five company values which are the ways of working that we look forward to all colleagues and managers while working in Sainsbury’s to live by. The values are listed below:

Sainsbury’s Colleague Values:-

• Getting better every day
• Great service drives sales
• Individual responsibility – team delivery
• Keep it simple
• Respect for the individual
• Treat every £ as your own

Company Values: –

• Best for food and health
• Sourcing with integrity
• Respect for our environment
• Making a positive difference to our community
• A great place to work

(www.jsainsbury.co.uk )

Size:-

J Sainsbury Plc consists of a chain of 872 stores comprising in which 537 supermarkets and 335 convenience stores – and Sainsbury’s Bank. At present, Sainsbury’s serve over 19 million customers a week. The large store of Sainsbury’s offers around 30,000 products – 40% of these are Sainsbury’s own brand. Many stores offer complementary non-food products and services. Nearly 60% of our stores are in the town centre or edge of centre locations, many of these built on previously in ruins sites. We employ 150,000 colleagues of these, 70% are part-time and 30% are full time. It is the UK’s third largest grocery stores with 16% market share behind international behemoth Tesco (31% share) and ASDA (17%), which is owned by Wal-Mart. ( www.Hemscott.com ) An internet based delivery shopping service is also available to nearly 90 per cent of UK households.

Structure:-

In order to meet our customer’s needs the Sainsbury’s retail area is divided into different customer-led formats. This acknowledge the face that Sainsbury’s should be a customer led business and supports our strategy to delivering great service and quality at a competitive cost. There are 2 main format categories:

Supermarkets:-

These stores have a comprehensive full food offer with some having extended ranges of general merchandise. These make up the bulk of our estate.

Convenience:-

Sainsbury’s local – these stores are located within the high street, urban and suburban areas. They are specifically designed and operated to cater for the “grab and go”, meal solutions, top up, distress and convenience customer. These stores are typically the smallest in estate.