Summary
2019 marked the 150th anniversary since John James Sainsbury and his wife Mary Ann opened their first store at 173 Drury Lane, London. This first store wasn’t the supermarket offering thousands of different product lines that we know today but one that sold just three products – milk, eggs and butter.
The Sainsbury Archive was an outcome from the centenary celebrations in 1969, reflecting an awareness of the value that safeguarding its historical records and heritage could offer the business. The core of the archive is the records of John James Sainsbury and the family; however the Sainsbury Archive’s collections have developed to now also include reports, accounts, staff and other business records, and a large number of photographs.
Be fashionable! Shop at J. Sainsbury’s’, c.1930 (ref SA/MARK/ADV/5/1/3). Image courtesy of The Sainsbury Archive.
The collections also include thousands of artefacts ranging from staff uniforms to product packaging. Together these records and objects capture and reflect the changes in the retail sector and support research into shopping and eating habits, local and family history and also architecture and urban development.
In 2003 the Sainsbury Archive became a charitable trust, independent from the company. Its remit is to ‘advance education for the public benefit by collecting, maintaining and displaying items and documents relating to the history of Sainsbury’s and the family of John James Sainsbury’. The Archive is governed independently of the company, which allows it to pursue its own opportunities, goals and projects. Co-ordination is overseen by the Sainsbury’s Group Heritage Manager who serves as point of liaison with colleagues across the company.
Challenges and opportunities
One of the most prominent elements of the 2019 anniversary programme was the creation of a pop-up experience in Covent Garden. ‘Since 1869: The Sainsbury’s 150 Experience’ was an immersive experience in the heart of Drury Lane, taking visitors through the Sainsbury’s journey from 1869 to 2019. It featured a replica early shop exterior, a ‘shop of the past’, a timeline and a display of material from the archive. It received international television coverage when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited and looked around.
The idea behind the pop up came from sessions with the company’s creative agencies, with ideas, requests for material and all approvals being made in conjunction with the archive service. The inclusion of objects and documents from the Sainsbury Archive added another dimension to the overall experience and gave visitors an idea what the archive service has and looks after.
This was one of several ways the archive service contributed to the anniversary – all required considerable planning. For example, in 2016, with the upcoming anniversary in mind, the archive service established an ambitious programme to digitise 90,000 images to support research into local branches and the wider story of the business. The opportunity was taken to review what content had already been digitised and where gaps needed to be filled. The priorities, including additional staffing, were agreed with the Sainsbury Archive’s trustees. The work also included co-ordination and collaboration with colleagues in the business’ legal team regarding copyright and with procurement concerning imagery licensing contracts.
In addition to its digitisation work there was a strong desire to update the archive service’s website to provide an enhanced online presence. The intention was to create a clear signpost to imagery and content from the organisation’s past. It was a considerable task to realise this, as it involved bringing information from four different websites together into a single resource. The new website sought to engage researchers, Sainsbury’s employees, education users and those with a more general interest.
In the anniversary year itself, the archive service also produced an exhibition, ‘Cornflakes to Cola’, for the Design Museum, focussing on the work of Sainsbury’s Design Studio which designed the packaging for thousands of products between 1962-1977. Located on the Balcony Gallery of the Design Museum’s atrium space, it is estimated that two-thirds of the museum’s 300,000 visitors during its four-month run saw the exhibition.
Outcomes
There were varied and substantial positive outcomes to these various strands of work related to the 150th anniversary.
The Drury Lane pop-up store, described by a Sainsbury’s spokesperson as ‘part immersive theatre and part window to the past’, proved to be incredibly popular, garnering not only significant press coverage of HM Queen Elizabeth II’s visit, but also positive reaction from the more than 1000 members of the public who visited during its open weekend.
Over 75,000 records on the archive service’s website now have images attached and digitisation has continued to enable content to be shared online. The archive service used the anniversary as the backdrop to its first Twitter campaign with an ‘image of the day’ feature for 150 days. Separately the company published a series of posts on Twitter and Facebook that included images licensed from the archive collections.
The ‘Cornflakes to Cola’ exhibition sought to bring the archive service’s material to a new audience and there is clear evidence the exhibition extending the reach of the archive on social media. One promotion, #FontSunday, engaged the Design Museum’s 4.3 million followers with the topic of ‘retro food packaging and branding’ and resulted in over 1000 mentions of the hashtag on Twitter.
The new website for the Sainsbury Archive features an interactive timeline drawing heavily from the archive’s collections, with users able to browse a map for branches linked to historical images of that branch. In its first year the new website had over 118,000 visitors. The current online catalogue includes over 120,000 digital images and usage has continued to grow with just over 240,000 visitors in 2023.
Prior to this digitisation programme, the archive service wasn’t dealing with a huge quantity of digital material. The ambitious nature of the programme served as a catalyst in that it highlighted to the trustees and company stakeholders the need for a digital preservation system to store and safeguard these assets. A digital preservation system was procured as part of the project and is now in place.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the archive service shared their experiences with colleagues in the archives sector, extending the value and impact of the project further. The digitised resources and online presence continue to allow the archive service to serve and support its audiences.
“The aim of the Sainsbury Archive is to educate the public on the transformation of retail and the role the Sainsbury family has played during this time. Not every family has such a carefully curated record of its history and role in society. I am delighted that much of the collection is now online, enabling more people to benefit from the resource.”
Mark Sainsbury, Trustee of the Sainsbury Archive
What was learned from the process?
The 150th anniversary celebrations were seen as a success within the business, appearing in many articles and features across internal comms channels. Offices and stores featured installations, demonstrating how powerful the use of archive imagery can be. Staff were connected to the history of the company through tangible expressions informed by the archive collections: for example, all colleagues received a heritage inspired gift – a tote bag showing milestones from the business’ history, pin badge, an anniversary edition of the staff magazine – Journal – packed with history, a birthday card and a retro packet of tea and biscuits.
Events and activities in 2019 marked the culmination of more than three years of planning. The archive service had begun to plan for the anniversary in 2016, two years before the company’s own planning for the anniversary began. The sheer number of projects and initiatives was not insignificant and it required considerable time and effort to plan and co-ordinate.
The external and internal awareness of the Sainsbury Archive and its website was exceptional. Both sides received positive feedback from the public and users from within the business. The archive service was particularly struck by the way in which tangible expressions of the heritage, such as the heritage-inspired shopping bags, appealed to people and how much they connected through a sense of ‘nostalgia’.
Key advice
With such a long lead-in time there were lots of people making suggestions – more than forty ideas or proposals were put forward in total. The archive service was keen to use and promote the collections as widely as possible but was realistic about what could be achieved given the resources and time available.
Speaking with colleagues who have gone through a similar project or initiative and understanding the lessons they learned was helpful. In making the case for digitisation projects, it’s worth considering the opportunities for using the resources to support stories and engaging audiences via social media, as well as for other purposes.
If possible, identify what is possible with current levels of resource and budget against what might be achieved with additional budget and staff resource, to demonstrate the need for extra investment and capacity.
Bringing key stakeholders together several years ahead of the anniversary to identify common goals that support or enable multiple outcomes then allows individual teams to identify what needs to be done, by whom, and in what order. As the anniversary approaches, a more regular working group or similar meetings can support the co-ordination that is necessary.
“It has been great to be involved in the Archive’s digitisation and website project right from the beginning. The 150th anniversary was such a big milestone, and being able to leverage all the newly digitised imagery, showcase our rich heritage to the public and colleagues has been a massive highlight, and something both the archive and the company feel incredibly proud of.
It wouldn’t have been possible without thorough planning, stakeholder engagement and cooperation between the Archive Trustees, archive team and internal heritage coordinator.”Sainsbury Archive Chairman, Tim Fallowfield, OBE
How will this work be developed in the future?
The work and investment in digitisation has supported numerous activities including the creation of a pack of resources for those living with dementia as part of the archive service’s involvement in the ‘Take One Ingredient’ project supported by the Linbury Trust. The resource, which features a selection of photographs of store interiors, is designed to prompt conversations about food, and a QR code links to some sounds of shopping. Participation in the project, which was undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic, was possible because so much content had been digitised and made available online.
Find out more
The Sainsbury Archive is held in the Sainsbury Study Centre at London Museum Docklands.
Email: sainsburyarchive@londonmuseum.org.uk
Relevant resources
The National Archives’ Digitisation at the National Archives (PDF, 0.6 MB)
The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Digitisation project planner and handbook
The Wellcome Trust’s Technical Guidelines for Digitisation Projects (PDF, 0.1 MB)
The Baring Archive’s Digitisation Selection Model (PDF, 0.1 MB)