The J Sainsbury reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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J Sainsbury

Sponsorship the way you would do it
J Sainsbury plc. is the parent company of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. commonly known as Sainsbury's which is a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The J Sainsbury group also has interests in property and banking.


		


Table of contents 







1 Sainsbury's Supermarkets

2 Banking

3 Property

4 Sainsbury Family

5 External links




Sainsbury's Supermarkets

Sainsbury's was established in 1869 when John James Sainsbury and his wife Mary Ann opened a store in Drury Lane in Holborn, London. Until 1973 the company was still wholly owned by the Sainsbury family, however it was then floated in what was at the time the largest ever floation on the London Stock Exchange. Today the family retain approximately 30% of the shares. Sainsbury's was for decades the premier supermarket in the UK, it lost this position however in the mid 1990s to Tesco, further slipping to No.3 in mid 2003 behind Walmart-backed Asda. The supermarket chain has yet to recover from this, with profits and sales growth consistently below that of its main rivals.

The appointment of Sir Peter Davis as CEO in March 2000 was seen as an attempt to regain market position and if he is judged on that aim then he can be said to have failed. During his term Sainsbury's was demoted to third in the UK grocery market. However in his first two years he raised profits above targets and oversaw an almost £2Bn upgrade of stores,distribution and IT equipment. At the end of March 2004 Sir Peter was promoted to Chairman and was replaced as CEO by Justin King, who joins Sainsbury's from Marks and Spencer plc. Mr. King was also previously a managing director at Asda.

In 1987 it took over US chain Shaw's Supermarkets.  On 26 March 2004 it was announced that it was selling the chain to Albertsons Inc for $2.5 billion.


Banking

In 1997 Sainsbury's Bank was established - a joint venture between J Sainsbury plc. and the Bank of Scotland.




Property

J Sainsbury's property interests are large, with a seperate company within the group responsible for managing the company's exisisting property assets and the development of new ones (including new stores and other commerical properties.)




Sainsbury Family

Several members of the Sainsbury family have been prominent in British public life:


External links