Introduction to J. Sainsbury Plc Essay Example

in the lives of over 11 million customers a week and as at October 2003 had 512 stores throughout the UK employing over 145,000 people.

... Sainsbury’s is best known as a supermarket retailer. But it has a series of other activities, which are: •     Sainsbury’s Supermarkets •     Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc •     Sainsbury’s Bank •     J Sainsbury Developments Ltd (JSD)      Sainsbury’s Property Company Sainsbury’s like other companies has a lot of competitors in the different fields which it operates, they are: •     In the supermarket business Sainsbury’s main competitors are Tesco, Asda, Safeway and Morrisons (the big five) •     In retail banking the main competition comes from Tesco Financial Services, M & S Financial Services, the traditional high street banks, Egg, Halifax and Abbey National mortgages.

... Tesco Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919 as a little stall in East London selling foodstuffs.

The first line of Cohen brand goods placed on the market was Tesco tea. .. The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware.

In 1947 Tesco Stores (Holdings) Ltd was floated on the Stock Exchange, with a share price of 25p. ... Tesco competed by offering low prices to customer, which it achieved buying in bulk and keeping costs down.

Since 1998, Tesco Stores has been the biggest trade network in England, Scotland and Wales. In Great Britain, where Tesco owns over 700 stores and department stores, an average commercial unit offers about 40 000 sales lines from food to CDs, clothes, books, garden furniture, and toys.Recently, Tesco has run trade units in Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. Today, Tesco Plc is the UK’s

largest retailer, and some of its activities include: •     Tesco Supermarkets •     Tesco Finance and Insurance Services •     Tesco Telecoms 3.

Comparative analysis In this section, a financial ratio analysis will be used as the major tool to highlight the comparative analysis of both companies. ... Financial Ratio Analysis Financial ratio analysis is a very important tool used to interpret so much about accounts and businesses.When we use ratio analysis we can work out the profitability of a business, tell if it has enough money to pay its debts and even tell a bit about its shareholders situation/reaction.

It provides a quick and relatively simple means of examining the financial conditions of a business like checking whether a business is doing better this year than its previous year; and also comparing it to similar businesses in the industry. J Sainsbury PLC INTRODUCTION J Sainsbury PLC is one of the leading food retailers in the UK and also has interests in financial services.It comprises of Sainsbury's Supermarkets, Bells Stores, Jackson's Stores and Sainsbury's Bank. There are currently 583 Sainsbury’s supermarkets throughout the UK employing over 145,000 people, offering over 34,000 products and serving over 11 million customers a week. It is for these reasons that careful management of operations within each of the stores is vital to ensure that all processes are kept running smoothly so that customers can be served and products can be replenished.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVESCustomers want a quality service when they shop. A quality service is defined as ‘a service that consistently meets or exceeds a customers expectations’. The supermarket needs to look at the current value of a customer – how can they make this

person spend as much money as possible in the store. They also need to look at the future value of the customer – how can they make sure that this person will return, when they will spend more. The objectives of the supermarket need to be looked at and worked towards very carefully.