A-Z Of Employers: Sainsbury's

What does it do?

One of the best-known names on the high street, and at out-of-town locations, Sainsbury's also has one of the oldest pedigrees, its roots stretching back to a small dairy shop in London's Drury Lane in 1869. For the first century, its shops were small and located mainly in the South-east. The 1980s, though, saw bigger stores and the start of expansion across the UK. Adoption of new technology, such as electronic scanning at the till, helped give it a real competitive edge in the 1990s, but around the turn of the century, fortunes declined and the opposition caught up. Many saw the low point as 2004, when Sainsbury's made its first ever loss, and ASDA overtook it as Britain's second biggest supermarket. The arrival of Justin King as chief executive in October 2004 heralded a fight back. His three-year "recovery" plan, accompanied by successful marketing campaigns, including Jamie Oliver's high-profile endorsement, has brought the company back into profit and corporate health.

Vital Statistics:

Sainsbury's serves 16 million customers each week in 455 supermarkets, and 301 "convenience stores."

The office:

Head office is in Holborn in London, where around 2,000 of the total 153,000 staff are based. The rest are spread around stores and distribution centres across the country.

Is this you?

Sainsbury's takes about 70 graduates a year, spread evenly across all functional areas needed for a large, nationwide operation: retail, buying, supply chain, finance, customer and marketing, human resources and product technology and development. Any degree will do, apart from product technology applicants, who need food science or something similar.

The recruitment process:

Online applications, at www.sainsburys.co.uk/graduates, precede psychometric, verbal and numerical tests, a telephone interview, and possibly an assessment centre, where role plays will put you in a real life in-store situation. Those offered jobs start at different locations according to function. Retail trainees go straight to a store, while others oscillate between head office locations in London and placements at the sharp end: stores and distribution centres around the country. Length of training varies, from just over a year for buying and product technology, to around three years for finance. Responsibility comes quickly for all. For example, in stores, you'll be managing your own product area, frozen foods maybe, within three months.

Top Dollar?

All graduates start on £22,000, with 22 days holiday a year and 10 per cent off their shopping bill in the stores.

Beam me up Scotty?

Within three to four years of joining, a graduate will be managing a whole department, with responsibility for people and a budget.

Who's the boss?

Chief Executive Justin King, 46, a business graduate from Bath University, arrived at Sainsbury's from Marks & Spencer.

Little known fact:

You never know who you might meet on your weekly Sainsbury's shop. The singer Lemar wore one of those orange fleeces before his vocal chords made him a living.