Sainsbury's

With a history of more than 140 years, and close to 800 stores throughout the UK, Sainsbury's is one of the most recognised high-street names in the UK.

From its very first shop in Drury Lane, London, in 1869, Sainsbury's has come a long way, and now operates close to 800 stores in the United Kingdom, with over 2,000 suppliers, more than 30,000 products, and with a staff of more than 150,000.

Now, with the advent of online shopping, Sainsbury's is making its name in online retail too, and offers a real alternative to other online stores, such as Tesco, which has previously been dominant in this sector for several years.

As regular Sainsbury's shoppers will know, the traffic light labels on many Sainsbury's food products provide a quick and handy reference for determining the health-value of a product, but Sainsbury's also take great pride in providing environmentally friendly products too. For instance, in June 2008, Sainsbury's became the first major supermarket to source its fresh and smoked salmon entirely from Scottish salmon farms approved by Freedom Food, and meeting the RSPCA's strict welfare standards for salmon.

Additionally, in 2007, Sainsbury's were the first UK supermarket to convert its banana production entirely to Fairtrade. Today more than half of the Fairtrade bananas sold in the UK are sold by Sainsbury's.

In fact, Sainsbury's aim to be environmentally responsible not just with regards to the food it sells, but in all aspects of the way the Sainsbury's business is operated, and encourages customers to be environmentally responsible too.

If you're shopping for groceries at Sainsbury's, then it's good to know that Sainsbury's have a long and established history of supporting British farmers.

However, Sainsbury's believe this is about more than simply stocking British farmers' products. It's also about working closely with UK farmers to raise their capability and skill levels, and thus empowering them to continue supplying Sainsbury's for the long-term.

Where possible, Sainsbury's aim to source British and Sainsbury's offer a variety of products that are 100% British all year long. For other types of seasonal produce, Sainsbury's aim to stock the best of British in season and, in some cases, to secure supplies, Sainsbury's purchase an especially large portion of the British crop.

Sainsbury's commitment to providing great-tasting, affordable British produce means being able to provide customers healthy products when they are at their very best. In fact, during the 2008-2009 British season Sainsbury's sold more British apples and pears than any other supermarket we purchased 45% of all tomatoes grown in the UK and purchased over 23% of the British strawberry crop.