News on 12 September 2000
Sainsbury’s is to restructure its property portfolio
to maximise the value of its £4.5bn UK supermarket estate. The restructure
will see property, construction and facilities management functions replaced
by three new areas: development and portfolio planning, delivery and performance.
Group property director Ian Coull says Sainsbury’s has spent the
past few months scoping out the new organisation and new ways of working
which will help the company accelerate its efforts to develop the potential
of its estate. The changes will provide Sainsbury’s the infrastructure
and skills to explore the wider property markets of the leisure, residential,
commercial and service sectors. He also says the new structure and ways
of working will deliver Sainsbury’s an annual £35m saving in
capital expenditure.
Originally, Sainsbury’s property function was to identify and develop
sites for its supermarket business in the UK. The restructuring aims to
maximise value from the property portfolio – for example, permission
to develop a hotel, residential units and a leisure centre to co-exist
with an existing supermarket in the Nine Elms site in London has been
sought.
Sainsbury’s has also developed a ‘sale and leaseback’ scheme
through which it has raised £556m since February this year. Chris
Fenner, who becomes director of delivery within the new structure says
that asset management is key to extracting real benefits from the current
property portfolio.
