The country’s biggest family grocer
The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. The Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (now the Centre for Mental Health). The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia. And Sainsbury’s, where, traditionally, good food costs less. For all of these, and for Jamie Oliver recipe cards, we have to thank John James Sainsbury and Mary Ann Sainsbury.
Legend has it that the Sainsburys founded the family business on their wedding day, on 20 April 1869. Certainly, they opened their first shop the same year, at 173 Drury Lane, selling dairy products. Mary’s father was a dairyman with a shop in Euston, so they had a little bit of a headstart; they had connections. By the mid-1870s the Sainsburys were successful enough to be able to move their rapidly expanding family from Drury Lane to the bucolic delights of Kentish Town, north London, and a few years later to Highgate.
The early Sainsbury’s shop signs boasted of “Quality perfect, prices lower”. It was – and remains – a winning combination. By 1882, the Sainsburys were selling own-brand products and had their first branch outside London, in Croydon. By 1916, they had set up a training school at Blackfriars. They expanded slowly, but maintained their standards. They left their competitors, Lipton, and Home and Colonial, in their wake. John James and Mary had six sons and five daughters. All the sons went into the family business, and John Benjamin, the eldest, succeeded as chairman of J Sainsbury Ltd on his father’s death in 1928. Under his leadership, the company went from strength to strength, expanding to 250 grocery stores. John Benjamin introduced libraries into every branch, set up a sports ground, introduced pensions, and established a good fellowship fund for employees facing hardship.
John Benjamin and his wife, Mabel – daughter of a Dutch Jewish margarine magnate, Jacob van den Bergh – had two sons and a daughter. In 1938, following a heart attack, John Benjamin handed over the day-to-day running of the business to the boys, Alan John and Robert James. It was a wise move. The brothers were doubly successful. Alan concentrated on the retail and trade; Robert dealt with the finances. They were innovators. They introduced self-service supermarkets in the 1950s and computerised stock-control systems.
Alan’s son, John Davan Sainsbury became chairman in 1969. He oversaw a period of massive expansion and the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1973. Robert Sainsbury’s son David became chairman in 1992.
At this point in the 100-year history of the Sainsbury family dynasty, there are so many high-achieving Sainsburys floating around that it’s difficult to tell one from the other – like staring into a chill cabinet full of tasty pork products. In summary: David Sainsbury is the Lord Sainsbury who was the major donor to the Labour party and who in 1998 became parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Trade and Industry. Alan Sainsbury’s son, Tim, is the Sainsbury who was Conservative MP for Hove and one time Minister for Trade and Minister for Industry. Tim Sainsbury’s brother, John Davan, is the Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover who became chairman of Sainsbury’s in 1969. John Davan, Tim and their other brother, Simon, are the Sainsburys who funded the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery. Robert James Sainsbury is the Sainsbury who, with his wife, founded the collection of modern and tribal art at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia.
The last Sainsbury to be chairman of the company was David, but the family still holds about a 15% stake in the business. John Davan Sainsbury is life president. His daughter, Sarah, is married to the son of Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who is Nigel Havers’ auntie.
