Sainsbury chief executive Sir Peter Davis said the new clothing range developed for the retailer by Jeff Banks would take "supermarket fashion to a new level, rivalling the current High Street retailers". Speaking at the launch of the new Jeff & Co' range of clothing, non food trading director James McCann rejected claims that Sainsbury was jumping on the non food bandwagon in a desperate bid to catch up with rivals Tesco and Asda. "This is not another George, one size fits all', collection. It completely changes the rules of engagement. "By offering a series of sub brands catering for different target consumers under one umbrella brand, Jeff & Co represents something unique in the industry, he said. "For styling and fit in this price range, it's better than anything on the market." The brand will be launched at the Dunstable store in April and rolled out to a "critical mass" of 25 stores by September, at which point the group will decide whether to extend the concept across the portfolio. The collection will be housed in stores within stores' ranging from 4,000-7,000sq ft depending on the space available. However, food lines will not be cut to accommodate the expanded non food offer being introduced to stores over the next two years, stressed McCann. "We aim to be the best in class in food and thereafter, if the opportunity and space is there, we will use it," he said. Homeshop is a "flexible concept" comprising a series of propositions including cookware, electrical items, and kids' toys among other products, said McCann. If space is limited, only some of the elements are included. "There is no set formula for our non food offer and no fixed food/non food ratio. Food is the reason why people come to Sainsbury, but in the larger destination stores, customers do expect a distinct and well priced non food offer." Referring to the recent emphasis Asda and Tesco had placed on non food, McCann insisted: "They're not doing anything we're not doing," and hinted the retailer was looking at opportunities to develop non food online. {{NEWS }}

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