Initial changes by Sainsbury’s

Supermarket group Sainsbury’s is gearing up to apply elements of the store format developed by 20/20 Design and Strategy to five of its 415 stores. Although the locations of the stores have yet to be announced it is understood that the Camden branch in London is scheduled to be among the five.

The announcement comes as Sainsbury’s unveils its long-awaited corporate identity, which has been under development by 20/20 since 1997. This will be rolled out gradually.

The identity sees new colours of Living Orange and blue introduced. These will be applied to revised facias on Sainsbury’s stores. The supermarket chain will drop the “J” from J Sainsbury, which was the name traditionally placed over the doors. Blue will be used to spell out the format of each store – which will be classified as either a Supermarket, Central, Local or SavaCentre outlet. It will also be applied to Sainsbury’s Order Line.

The supermarket group has been under pressure from the City to improve its lacklustre performance of recent years.

See News Analysis, page 7.