Sainsbury to enter discount sector
MIKE Coupe, who takes over as chief executive of J Sainsbury next month, has already stamped his mark on the grocer by announcing a groundbreaking deal to break into the discount sector, writesRupert
Steiner.
He has teamed up with Danish grocer Dansk Supermarked to relaunch discount chain Netto in the UK.
The Big Four grocers have been losing market share to Aldi and Lidl, and the Netto joint venture is an aggressive move by Coupe to break the strangle hold.
Both Sainsbury’s (down 4.5p to 316.8p) and Dansk will invest £12.5m each into a separate stand alone business which will open five trial stores in the North of England by Christmas.
A further ten stores will open in 2015 and a decision will be taken by the end of next year over whether to roll the concept out around the country.
A version of Netto previously traded in the UK, from 200 stores, and the properties were sold to Asda in 2010.
Dansk chief executive Per Bank said that the new version would be a different concept benefitting from lessons learnt over the past four years in which Netto has successfully battled against Lidl and Aldi on mainland Europe.
He said the whole concept would be different because the stores would sell Danish pastries and other freshly baked products as well as feature fresh meats and tents.