You heard it here first ­ managers think Sir Peter Davis is already having a positive impact on Sainsbury according to a Knowledge Store survey. Next week he spells out his plans for recovery in detail. What should we expect? Sainsbury's hoped for knight in shining armour Sir Peter Davis will next week spell out his plans for the fallen from grace stores group. Much has been expected from Sir Peter since he returned to the beleaguered retailer in March. Analysts and commentators even chose to overlook disappointing first quarter sales figures in the light of what goodies he would pull out of his bag on May 31. And store managers like what they have seen so far. A staggering 92% of respondents to a survey conducted last week exclusively for The Grocer by William Reed Knowledge Store of 100 managers agreed that Sir Peter is already having a positive impact on the business. A further 6% said while they had seen no improvement to date, "I like what I hear". Since ousting David Bremner in March, Sir Peter has had hands on control of the supermarkets business. One analyst said at the time that in May they wanted to see "a nice shake up of the business and a cost cutting strategy". In the meantime Sir Peter has put in place what is deemed to be a stronger team including new strategic e-commerce appointments. At the time of the shake up Sir Peter promised he would be concentrating on putting traditional values back in the heart of the business. He said: "We're talking about concentrating again on what Sainsbury is good at. Fresh foods, instore standards and retail value." However for all the talk, the writing is on the wall. Action needs to be taken to improve the trading situation. Like for like sales in the first quarter grew 0.6% compared to Tesco which saw an increase of 4.2%. Sainsbury needs to recapture a credible market position, improve the instore experience and streamline the efficiencies within the business. We outline the Knowledge Store poll findings of what managers at Sainsbury think would help to boost the chain and our team of experts gives a view on how Sir Peter might achieve it. {{COVER FEATURE }}

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