The Sainsbury’s brand ‘Different values’
The values of the Sainsbury’s brand: the passion for healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food, our focus on delivering great products at fair prices, a history of innovation and leadership and a strong regard for the social, ethical and environmental effect of our operation, have continued to stand the test of time. Since we opened our first shop in 1869, Sainsbury’s has informed debate and led on issues of the day. With customer numbers now at over 16.5 million each week, initiatives we introduce can have a real impact on UK consumers and in particular the food they eat is a responsibility we take seriously.
A number of awards and audits over the past year recognised our achievements. In October 2007 Sainsbury’s was voted ‘Supermarket of the Year’ at the Retail Industry Awards for the second year running. Other accolades include the highest mark awarded for environmental performance in the National Consumer Council’s ‘Green Grocers’ report, the only ‘A’ awarded to a major supermarket by Greenpeace and ‘best volume retailer’ and ‘most improved supermarket’ by Compassion in World Farming for our commitment to improving animal welfare.
We publish a separate report on our corporate responsibility performance on our website at http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/cr. Five principles are at the core of the brand: to be ‘the best for food and health’, ‘sourcing with integrity’, to have ‘respect for our environment’, ‘making a positive difference to our community’ and to be ‘a great place to work’. They provide differentiation from major competitors and define and direct all our activities.
Best for food and health
Over recent years customers have become increasingly concerned with the nutritional benefit of individual foods as well as eating a better and more healthy diet. Providing innovation and clear, honest information helps customers choose a healthier diet and the right food for their lifestyles. We were the first supermarket to put nutritional labels on the front of products when we introduced our Wheel of Health multiple traffic light label in 2005. This is now on around 5,000 products. Continuing our innovation in healthy products, we launched the first own label 1 per cent fat milk in April 2008. This contains around half the fat of semi-skimmed milk but retains the flavour and same amount of calcium and vitamin B. If UK consumers switched from semi-skimmed milk to the new 1 per cent milk they could more than halve their saturated fat intake from milk each year.
Sourcing with integrity
The company believes in sourcing and producing products in a responsible manner. In November 2007 we announced that palm oil used in our own brand food would come from certified sustainable sources as increased demand is having a significant environmental impact. The first food on UK supermarket shelves to contain certified sustainable palm oil will be Sainsbury’s ‘basics’ Fish Fingers later this month, making an everyday food more ethical. This will equate to around eight million fish fingers this year which are also Marine Stewardship Council (“MSC”) approved. By July 2008, Sainsbury’s soap will also contain certified sustainable palm oil. Providing honest and transparent labelling, we will also be the first supermarket to label the use of palm oil in our food with the first range labelled by July 2008.
Respect for our environment
Much of our work in respecting the environment is about good housekeeping to improve efficiency and further reduce energy consumption. In April 2007 we launched ‘Make the difference days’ (“Mtdd”) to raise awareness and action around different social, environmental and ethical issues and work in partnership with customers to make a sustained difference. The first day highlighted the issue of free one-use disposable plastic bags. Over three Mtdds in total we gave away 15 million free ‘Bags for Life’ made from 100 per cent recycled material. We encouraged people to re-use these bags and have since seen a 10 per cent reduction in disposable bags used by customers. In April 2008, to mark the first anniversary of Mtdd, we announced the ambition to halve free plastic bag usage by April 2009. We are also increasing the recycled content of our single use bags from 33 per cent to 50 per cent, further reducing the environmental impact, and will issue Nectar loyalty points to customers re-using their own bags when shopping in Sainsbury’s stores from June 2008.
Making a positive difference to our community
Our stores are at the heart of the communities they serve and during the year, cash and in-kind donations to charitable organisations and other community projects totalled £7.6 million (2007: £6.6 million). Our colleagues, customers and suppliers raised £5.4 million (2007: £12.4 million which included Comic Relief) for charities through events supported by the company. Activities focus on areas that matter most to colleagues and customers such as food, family, health and children.
The Active Kids programme is a great example of this where customers earn vouchers against spend in-store and online which can then be redeemed by schools, Scout and Guide groups against activity and cookery equipment. Since the launch in 2005, £52 million of sports equipment, kit and coaching have been donated to over 26,000 UK children’s groups and nearly 40,000 registrations have been received for the 2008 scheme. New to this year’s scheme is the opportunity for British children to donate vouchers to schools in developing countries.