British food retail capital in the USA ‐ Part 1: Sainsbury and the Shaw’s experience

Abstract

Offers an appraisal of the corporate experience and prospects of J. Sainsbury plc in the USA, ten years after its market entry. In Part 1, focuses on Sainsbury’s New England subsidiary, Shaw’s, and shows that heavy capital investment, and the determined export of a British model of food retailing, has produced a chain of 119 stores enjoying rapid growth and impressive improvements in profitability. In Part 2, focuses on Sainsbury’s acquisition of 50 per cent of the voting stock (20 per cent of total equity) of Giant Food Inc., the market leader in the Washington DC‐Baltimore area. Shows that Sainsbury is poised to purchase full control of Giant (at an estimated cost of approximately $2 billion), is promoting a major expansion of Giant northwards into Philadelphia, and is on the verge of becoming one of the top ten firms in a US industry worth $410 billion per annum by 1995.

Citation

Wrigley, N. (1997), "British food retail capital in the USA ‐ Part 1: Sainsbury and the Shaw’s experience", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 7-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590559710156062