Sainsbury is creating a new premium non food sub-brand which it hopes will improve the appeal of its offer and ensure it hits its financial targets for the category.
'Designed for Sainsbury&' will sit across all categories and will be the non food equivalent of its Taste the Difference range. It has been designed in a similar style to highlight the consistency of its top offer across food and non food.
Although the retailer would not give details about the breadth of the offer - nor whether it would totally replace its &'By&' sub-brand, which offers premium homewares by designers such as Sir Terence Conran and Orla Kiely - it is anticipated that it will be launched later this year.
The launch will be a key part of its strategy to grow sales within general merchandise. Sainsbury has stated that non food is targeted to account for 25% of the £2.5bn growth in turnover that boss Justin King has said the company must achieve by 2008. The category now only accounts for between 6% and 7% of Sainsbury&'s total sales.
King has said a greater focus will be put on non food in the year ahead in order to meet its target for growth within the next two years. To achieve growth, Sainsbury has launched &'space swap&' and &'compelling non food&' programmes to make sure it is using the most of its available floor space as well as ensuring it has a credible core offer in all stores.
It follows the announced roll-out of clothing range Tu to 40 more stores this year and an extension of the range in 60 existing stores (The Grocer, 15 April, p8).
It also follows what Asda described as its most significant launch in non food, when it extended the George brand into homewares in March (The Grocer, 1 April, p9).
Sainsbury was ranked third on price behind Tesco and Asda in The Grocer 33 Non Food Report (13 May, p38). Its basket was about 17% more expensive than both rivals at £216.26.
Rachel Barnes
'Designed for Sainsbury&' will sit across all categories and will be the non food equivalent of its Taste the Difference range. It has been designed in a similar style to highlight the consistency of its top offer across food and non food.
Although the retailer would not give details about the breadth of the offer - nor whether it would totally replace its &'By&' sub-brand, which offers premium homewares by designers such as Sir Terence Conran and Orla Kiely - it is anticipated that it will be launched later this year.
The launch will be a key part of its strategy to grow sales within general merchandise. Sainsbury has stated that non food is targeted to account for 25% of the £2.5bn growth in turnover that boss Justin King has said the company must achieve by 2008. The category now only accounts for between 6% and 7% of Sainsbury&'s total sales.
King has said a greater focus will be put on non food in the year ahead in order to meet its target for growth within the next two years. To achieve growth, Sainsbury has launched &'space swap&' and &'compelling non food&' programmes to make sure it is using the most of its available floor space as well as ensuring it has a credible core offer in all stores.
It follows the announced roll-out of clothing range Tu to 40 more stores this year and an extension of the range in 60 existing stores (The Grocer, 15 April, p8).
It also follows what Asda described as its most significant launch in non food, when it extended the George brand into homewares in March (The Grocer, 1 April, p9).
Sainsbury was ranked third on price behind Tesco and Asda in The Grocer 33 Non Food Report (13 May, p38). Its basket was about 17% more expensive than both rivals at £216.26.
Rachel Barnes
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