Why is J Sainsbury in the news again?
Negative publicity has cursed J Sainsbury since the mid-1990s, when the once dominant supermarket lost its top rank to Tesco. Sainsbury, which had long wowed consumers with the quality of its food, found its growth curbed as Tesco went upmarket in its produce yet kept its prices low. Sir Peter Davis, pictured, who had worked for Sainsbury between 1976 and 1986 before building a formidable reputation at Reed Elsevier and Prudential, was hired as chief executive in 2000 to revive the retailer’s progress. He began reversing years of underinvestment in stores and infrastructure but failed to prevent Sainsbury losing market share and slipping behind Asda in the supermarket rankings.
