Operating Review

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Corporate responsibility

Our first store in Drury Lane, London 1869

Corporate responsibility principles are at the core of our business and our brand and have been since we opened our first store in 1869. Over the past year there has been a huge increase in the interest in social and ethical issues and Sainsbury’s heritage has meant we have been well placed to address customer concerns. During the year most other retailers announced plans to address concerns over issues such as health and environmental impacts, so our challenge is to keep leading, innovating and achieving great results.

Five principles underpin our activities (as detailed in Corporate Responsiblity) and we already have stretching targets in place. In April 2007 we announced our ‘Make the difference’ plan. This reflects the fact that customers are increasingly concerned about social and ethical issues; they now expect companies to meet their responsibilities, but they also want to know what they can do as well. This follows an association with the We Are What We Do (“WAWWD”) global social change movement over recent years.

The plan takes policy out of the boardroom and puts us in partnership with our customers. Each month we are holding a Make the difference day where we raise a specific issue and take action. And we show customers how they can take action too. With over 16 million customers each week, working together means we can really make the difference.

Our first Make the difference day was on 27 April 2007. During that day we stopped issuing disposable plastic carrier bags and instead gave customers our Bag for Life. This is made from 100 per cent recycled material and is typically used around 20 times. When it is worn out customers can return it to us for a new bag and we will recycle their old one. These bags normally cost ten pence each but on this day we issued more than six million for free. It was a great example of working together – we can give customers the bags but they must re-use them to help us reduce the amount of disposable bags in circulation.