Sainsbury's

The overview

Sainsbury’s is one of the biggest retailers in the UK. From its humble beginnings on Drury Lane in 1869, the company has gone on to become one of the ‘Big 4’ UK retailers. It has 537 supermarkets and 335 convenience stores. It serves around 19 million customers a week, and stocks around 30,000 products. Overall it has approximately 150,000 employees.

In terms of the traditional grocery market it certainly isn’t the first amongst equals. Its 16% grocery market share is perfectly respectable, but compares with Tesco’s 30% according to Datamonitor’s industry analysts. Asda’s grocery market share has also grown in recent years, through aggressive price cutting. However, Sainsbury’s non-food sales are growing significantly, as much as three times faster, and the company is now a significant force in banking and insurance.

Responsible retailer

But competition can be healthy, and has led Sainsbury’s to develop a number of innovative measures under the ‘corporate social responsibility’ banner. These include promoting healthier diets, carbon reduction and a drive towards increasing affordable goods, and now form part of the company’s five official values:

1. Being the best for food and health
2. Respecting the environment
3. Sourcing legitimate and sustainable goods
4. Having a positive impact in the community
5. Being an enjoyable place to work.

Sainsbury’s stresses that it tries to be a family-conscious business, and does its best to support and encourage what is, after all, one of its largest consumer bases. The company is also said to have benefited from moves to reduce hierarchy and the distance between tiers of workers.

It trialled a scheme that saw shopping trollies with iPad docks attached.

Claims to fame

• Official partner of the London 2012 Paralympics
• 'Supermarket of the Year’ at the 2009 Retail Industry Awards
• Ranked 32 in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, 2011 (up from 49 the previous year)
• Ranked 193 in The Guardian UK300, 2011
• Ranked 29 in Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing, 2012

Fixation with the number 20

Sainsbury’s recently launched its ‘2020 leaders’ programme. As part of this new move it will be reducing the number of participants on its graduate scheme to just 20. The company asserts that candidates will receive much more attention from higher ranking members of staff, and a much higher starting salary. The hope is that by 2020, these recruits will have gone on to become leaders within the company. See ‘Graduate jobs explained’ for more details of the graduate scheme.

Sainsbury’s aims to make £20 billion in extra sales by 2020, so the pressure will be on these new recruits, especially as 20% of that figure is to come from new and developing areas of business.

Recent news

In the past six months...

• Sainsbury’s ten-year advertising contract with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver came to an end, with an image change due in the new year.
• It reopened its trainee manager scheme to external candidates and introduced the ‘2020 leadership programme’ to encourage the next generation of company leaders.
• It trialled a scheme that saw shopping trollies with iPad docks attached in use in its store in Kensington, London.

Salary and benefits

Sainsbury’s 2020 leaders programme members will receive a starting salary of around £32,000.

They also get the following benefits:

• Performance-related bonus
• £2,000 interest-free loan
• Subsidised gym membership and other discounts
• Health insurance
• 22 days’ holiday.

Sainsbury’s also has a number of benefits available to long-term employees. These include:

• 10% staff discount after six months
• Other benefits such as private healthcare and extra holiday allowance.