Tesco : A British Supermarket Chain Essay

Sainsburys is currently the second largest chain of supermarkets within the UK, with a current supermarket sector share of 16.9%. Sainsbury’s was founded in 1869 and today operates in over 1,200 supermarket and convenience stores, and has over 161,000 employees. We will be looking at a number of areas internally and externally and see how they are effectively or not effectively performing.

This year Sainsbury had reported £581m in annual profits (Before tax) of which they awarded a 4.4% pay increase to 135,000 store employees.

Sainsbury’s have a long term goal to deliver their products and keep their customers happy. One of their objectives is to make life easier for their customers by offering products with good quality and service with a fair price. This also makes the customers happy and makes them want to shop

Sainsbury’s goal is to reflect they commitment to meeting customers’ needs; however, they want to shop food, clothing, general merchandise and services also they vision is to be trusted retailer where people love to work and shop. They strategy plan is to know they consumers better than anyone else, be there for them whenever they need them also offering great products and services at fair prices. They colleagues make the difference; they value makes them different.

Customers- Customers want the company to improve and give them better value for every product they buy. They want the company to produce high quality products for them. Customers are one of the main stakeholders of private sectors such as Sainsbury’s because without them Sainsbury’s wouldn’t achieve their aim.

J Sainsbury plc (Sainsbury) is a retail chain based in the UK. Sainsbury is engaged in grocery retailing through its supermarkets and convenience stores principally in the UK. The company operates its business through three divisions, namely, Retailing, Financial Services and Property Investment. Sainsbury serves its customers through a chain of 537 supermarkets and 335 convenience stores under the brand Sainsburys, and financial services via Sainsburys Bank. Sainsbury offers around 30,000 food and non-food products and services. The company is headquartered in London, the UK J Sainsbury plc Key Recent Developments Mar 11, 2010: Sainsbury launches first bakery college in the UK Mar 08, 2010: Sainsbury to add

The UK supermarket industry is a very competitive and profitable industry. It is made up of four main players with significant share of the market, and then various smaller companies who focus on smaller niches in the market such as the bottom of the market discounters and the top of the line speciality stores. It is an interesting market and this report evaluates the attractiveness of the industry using Porter’s five forces model with an insight into how market nicher Waitrose sustains a competitive advantage. Next this report looks at how major player Sainsbury’s successfully competes against its rivals using differentiation strategies, and analyses current consumer trends and problems can effect this industry.

Tesco PLC is a major food retailer that operates primarily in the United Kingdom. The company operates 2,291 supermarkets, superstores and convenience stores in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and Asia. The company also offers financial products, such as insurance and banking services, as well as electrical appliances and telecommunication products. For the year 2007 to date, Tesco PLC achieved revenues that totaled £ 46,611 million, an increase of 10.9% against the previous year revenues that were £42,016 million. Tesco is one of the largest food retailers in the world, operating around 2,318 stores and employing over 326,000 people.

In times of fast progress, in terms of economic development and globalisation, many multinational companies are extending their business overseas. One of those many firms is Tesco. This report will elaborate more about how Tesco failed in America when it encountered cultural and economic differences.

Tesco is one of the most famous stores in the UK with it being our biggest sales retailer earning billions in profits. The statistics of the supermarket are extremely impressive with over 330,000 staff employed, being the third largest supermarket, over 16 million Clubcard users in the UK and it being said that one pound in every seven has been spent at Tesco. All of this used to just be a small stall in East London when it was created by Jack Cohen in 1919 simply selling groceries making a profit of just £1 on the first day. Five years later, Cohen purchased a shipment of tea and Tesco became a brand with its first store opening another five years later, in 1929, in North London. Tesco is now not only just a grocery store, it also sells petrol (becoming the largest independent petrol retailer in the UK), insurance, has its own bank, credit cards, loans along with products such as its own clothing line F&F, games consoles, televisions and sports equipment. However, in 2014 Tesco had a shocking downfall when it had been revealed that they had exaggerated their half-year profit forecast by a massive £250 million.

Sainsbury has developed different supply chain channels to manage the complexity faced due to different store formats such as country town, Sainsbury local. Sainsbury believes in continues improvement and aims to achieve it in many different ways. Sainsbury recognise the importance of its people who plays a major role in delivering excellent business. The logistic staffs of Sainsbury tend to work in flexible and well maintained environment. One of the collaboration of Sainsbury is to focus on the demands of the consumers and maintain a healthy relationship with the suppliers and other partners. Above all Sainsbury is committed in reducing the impact of its operation towards the environment (J. Sainsbury Plc-b, 2002).

Strength-The main strength of Sainsbury is that they are the oldest existing supermarket chain in the UK. Hence, the brand name of Sainsbury is widely recognized and building a loyal customer base in their region. Outstanding quality and competitive price for products are unique resources that other competitors could not imitate.

Sainsbury’s have to ensure they make changes regarding customer needs as quickly as possible. This is important because if Sainsbury’s don’t act on customers’ needs they will possibly decline and lose their current market position because customers will go to its competitors such as Asda or Morrison’s etc. This shows that Sainsbury’s have to make decisions as soon as possible in order to maintain their position in the market and to be better than its competitors through improvement. This will also contribute to Sainsbury’s keeping a good reputation which will also help to attract new customers.

This report provides a view on operations of SAINSBURY’S , the third largest supermarket chain across United Kingdom. SAINSBURY’S , in spite of being the longest standing retail chain has been facing stiff competition from rivals like TESCO , MORRISONS. The competitors seemed to have developed at a faster pace since SAINSBURY’S has been through a difficult time in recent years and TESCO is now twice the size in terms of turnover.

Sainsbury's continued their programme of change aimed at releasing the talents of their colleagues, helping them to focus on the customer, and restoring their pride in working for Sainsbury's. It's clear to them that new and exciting working environments add to this pride. This will grow as they increase the pace of their programme of developing and extending stores. It is also why they're keen to tell everybody about their acknowledged successes, such as organics and ready meals, their record in protecting the environment and supporting farmers, and new initiatives, such as their innovations in e-commerce.