An Overview Of Sainsburys Plc

An Overview Of Sainsburys Plc Sainsburys PLC consists of Sainsburys a chain of 502 supermarkets and convenience stores-and sainsburys bank. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets is the UK’s longest standing major food retailing chain, having opened its first store in 1869. The Sainsbury’s brand is built upon a heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. Quality and fair prices go hand-in-hand with a responsible approach to business. Sainsbury’s stores have a particular emphasis on fresh food and strives to innovate continuously and improve products in line with customer needs. As per an article published on the BBC news website, Sainsbury was the market leader in the U.K until 1995 when Tesco took over the number one position. In July 2003 Asda took over sainsbury’s position to become UK’s second largest supermarket chain. As a marketing consultant appointed by Sainsbury PLC, through this document I shall lay down strategies which would enable Sainsbury PLC to secure its future, regain its momentum and emerge as a market leader in the times to come. It would be meaningful to begin our analysis through a current situations review. The purpose of analysis of our situations review is to primarily understand what may affect the enterprise in the future. In order to accomplish our objectives it would be worth assessing the external environment through: The super market retail industry in the UK is highly competitive. According to an article published by Research and Markets, under the heading â€Å"UK Food Retailing Market Forecast (2005-2010)†, large convenience stores dominate the retail markets in the UK. Seventy five percent of the total sales in the retail industry is attributed to the large supermarkets. Again seventy Five percent of the market share is held by four large players in the industry which include Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morissons. The industry is projected to still witness enormous potential of growth, unlik e other developed regions in the world. According to an article published by the Oxford University press, â€Å"Michael Porter made one of the most thorough attempts to analyse the economic forces within an industry. Porter’s work had an important place in the positioning school which sees the fundamental role of strategy as positioning the enterprise for the future† Threat of new entrants: Threat of new entrant would be high when the industry appears attractive and the barriers to entry are low. The UK supermarket industry is rewarding and as discussed earlier is projected to see further growth. This makes the industry eye-catching. However there is no doubt that entry into the UK markets would require a huge amount of capital. Considering this it would be appropriate to expect entrants from developed parts of the world. I see a threat of entry from American retail giants keeping in mind the slowdown in the retail industry in the American markets. One cannot undermine the possibility of new entrants from other European regions. A recent example would include the entry of German supermarket giant Lidl which has opened up retail stores in major British cities.