"It's the Business" programme, 4 August 1998

Recording of "It's the Business" programme for Sainsbury's staff (mainly store management teams). "It's the Business" was the anchor business television programme on the "SMART" network (Sainsbury's Management and Retail Television). This programme was broadcast live on 4 August 1998 by satellite to Sainsbury's stores, depots and offices. It was presented by John Howard in the studio.

Contents:
1. Introduction by presenter John Howard.
2. Studio interview with Bill Williams (Deputy Retail Director). Discusses: Tesco doubling the number of stores open for 24 hours a day; sales slowed over the last couple of weeks, possibly due to more people taking holidays abroad; stock loss being worse than expected; reinvigoration of ‘one in front’ policy (opening another checkout when there is more than one person queuing at a till) and trials of ‘none in front’ in some stores.
3. Recorded interview with John Dye (consultant) about category management. This involves creating and implementing a business plan for a category of products – to provide a range of products that the customer wants better than the competition. Includes footage of beers, wines and spirits displays at a store.
4. Studio interview with Allan Cheesman (Trading Director) about category management. Discusses Sainsbury’s category management plans, category management pilots such as crisps and spirits, what it involves in changing the range of lines.
5. Report with Bob Cooper (Trading Director) and Phil Barnes (Category Manager). Explains the benefits of category management including the example of crisps; the work that it involves. Footage is included of crisps display and store interior with customers shopping.
6. Studio interview with Allan Cheesman and Bill Williams about category management. Explains the changes, what the customer will see in the store, and that there will be no extra work or change in ‘PF’.
7. Continuation of interview with John Dye. Discusses how category management has worked in the United States and how it is likely to benefit Sainsbury’s with increased profit. Footage is included of a store with customers shopping and checkouts.
8. Continuation of interview with Allan Cheesman. Discusses implementation plan for category management.
9. News update: Lord Sainsbury of Turville (David Sainsbury) leaving Sainsbury’s to join the government as a minister; Office of Fair Trading investigation into buying power of top four supermarkets; Sainsbury’s, Tesco and M&S say it’s not financial viable to offer Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs); ‘Waitrose at Work’ service introduced for customers to order products to their workplace; new produce counters (salad bar) first trialled at Springfield, Chelmsford is to be rolled out to 80 more stores; Sainsbury’s Bank new credit card. Footage is included of Lord Sainsbury at a store opening; checkouts; salad bar at Springfield, Chelmsford store; ‘Sainsbury’s Bank Information Centre’ (leaflet stand) in a store.
10. Report on the opening of the first Sainsbury’s Local convenience store on Fulham Palace Road with David Clapham and staff at the store. Discusses the design and features of the store and how it operates currently as a separate structure. Footage is included of the store interior (a comprehensive tour of the store), product displays, coffee counter, staff at work, customers, ATM (cash machine). Vox pop interviews with customers are also included.
11. Phone interview with Helen Dodd (Project Management) about the Fulham Palace Road Sainsbury’s Local store. Discusses how it is going.
12. Live phone-in questions from staff with answers by Allan Cheesman and Bill Williams. Discusses: the relationship between category management and the ‘Offer Development Programme’ (ODP) to improve the range; how Sainsbury’s is likely to get a competitive edge with category management when its competitors are also introducing it; how stores will be supported on category planning of stores; issue with working with lead suppliers on category management; whether more buyers will be required for category management.
13. Report on problems with produce bags (bags for unpackaged fresh fruit and vegetables) with Paul Wilson (Retail Innovation Project Manager). Discusses the problems with the existing produce bags and benefits of the new produce bags. Footage is included of the bags in a store.
14. Concluding remarks by presenter.

Duration: 29 minutes. Produced by Sainsbury’s Group Internal Communications in association with CTN [Corporate Television Networks].

There are six additional videos of unedited footage ("rushes") for this video.