King's reign ends

Following years of speculation, this morning Justin King renounced his throne at Sainsbury’s, after a 10-year reign.

King will step down at Sainsbury’s agm on 9 July, with group commercial director Mike Coupe taking up the top job.

King joined Sainsbury’s in March 2004 . He’s the longest-serving boss of any of the multiples and has guided the retailer through 36 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth.

This morning, Sainsbury’s chairman David Tyler said King had “affected one of the most striking turnarounds in business” joining at a time when Sainsbury’s was “close to being on its knees”.

Here are some of his biggest achievements:

Financials

The numbers speak for themselves. During King’s reign, sales have increased from £16.1bn in 2004/5 to £25.6bn in 2012/13. Profits have trebled – from £254m to £756m. The number of transactions per week has risen from £14m to £24m. The business has made cost savings of £600m. And total shareholder return during King’s time at Sainsbury’s was 100.5%.

Here are some key stats:

_{* excluding VAT, from continuing operations ** 2012/13 figure provided, 2013/14 figure not yet released (Source: IGD Retail Analysis)}

Multi-channel

While others have been guilty of taking their eye off the ball, Sainsbury’s has successfully grown other channels without harming its core supermarket estate. It is now the seventh biggest clothing retailer by volume, the seventh biggest general merchandise retailer by value, has nearly 600 c-stores , and a £1bn online grocery business with more than 190,000 orders a week.

Brand Match

Rolled out in October 2011 after a pilot in Northern Ireland, the voucher at till scheme gives shoppers a coupon for the difference if their shopping was cheaper at Asda or Tesco, and helped King improve Sainsbury’s price perception . It was an immediate hit with customers and in May 2012, the chain credited the scheme for its 2.1% hike in full-year like-for-like sales . Perhaps even more telling of its success, Tesco rolled out its own version, Price Promise, last year.

David Beckham

In November 2011, Sainsbury’s netted footballing superstar David Beckham to front its Active Kids campaign. It was a massive coup for Sainsbury’s and one that is still going strong – a new Active Kids TV ad breaks tonight featuring Becks.

Paralympics

When everyone was clambering to be part of the London 2012 Olympics, Sainsbury’s instead announced it would be sponsoring Paralympics 2012 . Admitting to journalists this morning that at the time “lots of people were scratching their heads” over the move, King said the sponsorship wasn’t just about getting the Sainsbury’s name out there, but helping colleagues to get involved and raising awareness of disability sports. He did just that.