I'm interested in locating a list of UK based companies who provide
food or drink products to the JS Sainsburys Supermarket Chain.  I
understand the total supply base is approximately 3000.

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Request for Question Clarification by lot-ga on 28 Jun 2002 11:34 PDT

Hello do you require the supplier base for Sainsburys own brand products too?

Thanks

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Clarification of Question by scotty_uk-ga on 30 Jun 2002 14:23 PDT

Yes, I'm more interested in own brand product suppliers than top brand names.

Hi Scotty,


   I'm afraid that I was unable to locate an entire list of suppliers.
I've just been able to find the odd 10-20 suppliers here and there.
According to the Sainsbury's site, "Our Supply Chain process requires
the effective management of 2,000 suppliers at one end of the supply
chain and 12 million stocking points in our stores, at the other end
of the chain."

   The information is probably unavailable to the public, due to
business and strategic reasons.

   A fellow researcher, grimace-ga, who resides in the UK adds that
the supplier is not mentioned on the packaging of Sainsbury branded
products.

You could visit http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk and maybe you could get
some information you want. Their annual reports since 1991 are
available there.

Another piece of news I read, "Safeway's supermarket rival Sainsburys
have paid for ten of its conventional fruit and vegetable suppliers to
attend a conference on organic farming." This makes be believe even
stronger that Sainsbury's keeps the details of their suppliers
confidential

Cheers,
aditya2k

Hi, 

This information isn't online, as far as I can tell - it's almost
certainly commercially sensitive information which won't be easily
available.

A call to the Sainsbury's Media Centre might yield a lead, but they're
closed now until tomorrow morning.

grimace

Hi scotty_uk-ga,

I just got off the phone with Lynda Ashton, head of investor relations
for Sainsbury's.  She's never been asked about providing a list of
suppliers before, but will look into it for me.  If anyone can get
this information with Sainsbury's willfully providing it, she'll be
the one.  I will let you know as soon as I hear anything...

Chears,
not_you-ga

The official Sainsbury's position, straight from Lynda Ashton:

"As I suggested we are not able to give you the details you requested.
 We have a code of practice for ethical sourcing and give that to our
suppliers to abide by.  We believe we operate industry leading best
practice.  Just to size our diverse nature purchases, we buy produce
from 53 countries."