Sainsbury’s signed a 10-year outsourcing contract with Accenture in November 2000, hoping to slash £35 million a year off its £200m IT budget.

The UK’s number three chain scrapped the deal a year ago as part of a back-to-basics programme, aimed at saving £285m this year and £440m next, across the company.

Earlier this year, Sainsbury’s brought 470 IT staff from Accenture back in-house, along with all of its IT assets, at a reported one-off cost of around £65m but said that the resulting future savings of £40m a year will pay back the exit costs within two years.

Sainsbury’s recorded a seventh successive quarter of sales growth and a 123 per cent increase in pre-tax profits for the first half of this financial year in its interim results, published last week, with chief financial officer Darren Shapland saying the cost-savings programme is “absolutely on track”.

He told analysts and investors: “The in-sourcing means we will pay back quicker than we expected to.”

The chain is also ready to tackle its automated depot and supply chain project, that misfired so badly that shelves were left empty at key times last year. Sainsbury’s has already taken a £290m hit in writing-off automated equipment, redundant IT assets and stock losses related to that project.

Chief executive Justin King said lessons have been learned: “Actually the automation gets in the way... The next thing very likely we will do, because it will be the next step in terms of increasing the capacity of those depots, is to spend money taking that automation out so that we can operate more volume and get it out of the way, because it is literally in the way,” he said.

VIRTUALLY A RECORD

The Fruit Logistica virtual marketplace has set a new record with even more international companies featured.

The website lists fresh-produce company profiles, products and services provided by more than 1,650 exhibitors from over 60 countries.

Trade visitors, journalists and other industry specialists can use the marketplace year-round to learn about the products and services offered by the listed companies and arrange direct contacts.

Fruit Logistica visitors can also access an online appointment calendar to set up meetings with exhibitors and plan their visit to the trade fair online.

The site attracts more than 140,000 visitors a year.

MONEYCORP ONLINE

Moneycorp, one of Europe’s leading forex specialists, has launched a new online foreign exchange dealing service.

The free and easy-to-use service provides live, tick-by-tick exchange rates in up to 130 currency pairs with same day, next day, spot and forward value and, said a spokesperson, “represents a cost-effective, safe and efficient way for you to transact foreign exchange deals”.

The service also includes: complete dealing security through dual layered 128-bit encryption technology with user specific logon; fast, efficient transactions with online settlement and customer deal confirmations; full audit reporting on all transactions for accounting records; interface that requires no downloads; and full technical support from the Moneycorp team.

For all applicants, Moneycorp will donate £20 to Children In Need upon your first trade.

Go to www.moneycorp.com/onlinedealing