John James also opened a depot in Kentish Town to supply this growing chain and on the same site built bacon kilns, which produced Sainsbury’s first brand product. In 1882 John James opened his first branch in the suburbs of Croydon. This shop sold “high class” products and was more sophisticated than previous shops.
Towards the end of the Victorian period competition from large national multiple retailers such as Lipton’s almost caused the Sainsbury’s downfall. John James found it necessary to increase his rates of expansion so he would be able to by goods as competitively as companies like Lipton’s. Between 1890 and 1900 the Sainsbury’s branches trebled from 16 to 48.
Sainsbury’s entered its second centenary still as a family run company. However by the 1970s it had reached a scale of stature, which required public status. Sainsbury’s at the time was the largest ever floatation to the stock exchange.
During the 1980s and early 1990s Sainsbury’s expanded into the northeast of England, Scotland, north Wales and Northern Ireland. Many of stores opened during this period were on derelict or run-down sites, bringing much needed regenerations to towns where the manufacturing industry had declined. The architectural style of new stores became more adventurous and won several awards.
Sainsbury’s was the first store to introduce in-store technology such as scanning, computerised stock control and sales based ordering. Using this brought an enormous competitive advantage. It also became a world leader in the computerised energy management which together measures such as heat recovery from refrigeration plant to in-store bakery’s.
In the next decade the choice of products Sainsbury’s sold to customers more than doubled. This continued to reflect the company’s historic strengths in fresh foods. Products such as exotic fruits, ready meals and speciality breads were just some of the items introduced to meet not only the customer’s sophisticated tastes but also their demanding needs.
By the end of Sainsbury’s 125th year it had over 355 stores nationwide. In more recent years it has expanded to the USA, where it acquired the New- England based Shaw’s Supermarket Ltd. In 1997 it also established Sainsbury’s bank and in 1995 the first British supermarket company to offer goods directly from the Internet.