Bantons & expansion into the Midlands

Sainsbury’s first developed a connection with the Midlands in 1936 with the purchase of the Thoroughgoods chain, founded by Alfred Banton, who had started out as an employee of John James Sainsbury.

Banton’s chain of shops in the Midlands passed to his sons on his retirement, but when the business went bankrupt, Sainsbury’s acquired most of the shops.

The shops furthest from Sainsbury’s Blackfriars depot were subsequently sold, but nine branches were retained - in Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Kettering, Walsall and Northampton.

By the 1960s, Sainsbury’s presence in the Midlands was more firmly established. In 1963 a new self-service store opened in Rugby and by 1965 all but two of the older Midlands branches had been rebuilt or converted to self-service.

Find out more about self-service

In 1966, Sainsbury’s began trading in Birmingham, with new branches opening up in the Nuneaton, Kings Heath and Solihull areas. In the following years more Birmingham branches were opened in Aston, Erdington, and Halesowen. Other new branches in the region included Walsall, Wolverhampton and Worcester.

According to the March-April 1966 issue of Sainsbury’s in-house magazine ‘JS Journal’:

‘A major factor in the firm’s Midland expansion is the generally high level of prosperity which the whole area is enjoying’.

The region’s success as a manufacturing area had led to a postwar reconstruction boom. New towns, housing projects and shopping precincts created important trading opportunities for Sainsbury’s.