Sainsbury's

This article is about the supermarket business. For other uses of the Sainsbury name, see Sainsbury (disambiguation).
"J Sainsbury" redirects here. For the company's founder, see John James Sainsbury.

J Sainsbury plc
Sainsbury's
Company typePublic
IndustryRetailing
Founded1869; 155 years ago (1869) in Holborn, London, United Kingdom
FounderJohn James Sainsbury
HeadquartersLondon, England, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Martin Scicluna (Chairman)
Simon Roberts (CEO)
ProductsHypermarket/Superstore, supermarket, convenience shop, forecourt shop
BrandsArgos
Habitat
Nectar
Tu
RevenueIncrease £31.491 billion (2023)[1]
Decrease £972 million (2023)[1]
Decrease £207 million (2023)[1]
Number of employees
c. 162,000 (2023)[1]
Subsidiaries
Website

J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.

Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK retailer of groceries for most of the 20th century. In 1995, Tesco became the market leader when it overtook Sainsbury's, which has since been ranked second or third: it was overtaken by Asda from 2003 to 2014, and again for one month in 2019.[2][3] In 2018, a planned merger with Asda was blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority over concerns of increased prices for consumers.[4]

The holding company, J Sainsbury plc, is split into three divisions: Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd (including convenience shops), Sainsbury's Bank, and Argos. As of 2021, the largest overall shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the Qatar Investment Authority, which holds around 15% of the company.[5] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

  1. ^ a b c d "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). Sainsbury's. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  2. ^ Ruddick, Graham (15 January 2014). "Sainsbury's overtakes Asda for first time in a decade". Independent. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  3. ^ "Sainsbury's falls behind Asda to become UK's third biggest supermarket chain". The Guardian. 2 April 2019. Archived from the original on 31 March 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Sainsbury's-Asda merger blocked by regulator". BBC News. 25 April 2019. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  5. ^ "Sainsburys – Major Shareholders". Sainsbury's. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2021.