Sainsbury’s share price: Western Union branches to fill excess space in-store

Sainsbury Bank, the banking unit of Britain’s third largest retailer, J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY), has partnered with Western Union Company to provide in-store global money transfer services.The partnership is part of Sainsbury’s strategy of linking up with other companies to fill excess space in its supermarkets.

Western Union announced today that under the deal, the US remittance group will offer its services in 170 Sainsbury’s Bank travel money bureaus nationwide, including in major cities such as London, Leicester, Glasgow and Birmingham. Massimiliano Alvisini of Western Union said it had been the group’s intention to diversify its network in the UK and “work with top British retail brands”. “Sainsbury’s is a high-quality customer-focused brand and is a key part of our strategy to offer consumers even more ways to access our services to send or receive money,” he stated.
In November, Sainsbury’s admitted there was under-utilised space in a quarter of its stores and that within five years this space will total 1.5m square feet, as increasing numbers of customers choose to shop elsewhere or online, thus resulting in decreased footfall.
In a bid to utilise the growing available space, Sainsbury’s plans to partner with other businesses and to reorganise its outlets to sell more clothes and homewares.
The retailer is already home to Timpson shoe repair and Jessops camera outlets. Earlier this year, it also announced a deal with Argos, whereby the catalogue and online retailer owned by Home Retail Group, would open 10 stores within Sainsbury’s chain.
Sainsbury’s share price has been subdued today. As of 14:37 BST, the stock was trading 0.60 percent lower at 264.60p.
As of 15:18 BST, Tuesday, 19 May, J Sainsbury plc share price is 264.50p.