Sir Peter Davis

Sir Peter Davis (born December 23, 1941) was, until June 2004, the chairman of J Sainsbury, which operates the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. He worked for J Sainsbury from 1976 to 1986 and was responsible for all buying and marketing operations.

He was chief executive of Prudential plc from 1995 having joined the company as a non-executive director. During this period, the company was condemned by the Treasury for mis-selling more pensions than any other firm. The Securities and Investments Board ordered the firm to retrain its entire sales staff, due to 'continuing and persistent breaches' of the standards of training for the sales force.

Davis was knighted in 1997 for services to training and industry.

He rejoined Sainsbury's on March 1 2000 as Chief Executive Officer and implemented a £2bn investment in upgrading IT systems, distribution depots and stores. During his term Sainsbury's was demoted to third in the UK grocery market, behind Tesco and ASDA. However in his first two years he raised profits above target and delivered significant cost savings.

With the arrival of Justin King as CEO in 29 March 2004, Davis was promoted to chairman. Sainsbury's embarrassed itself with the aborted appointment of Ian Prosser, ex-Bass chairman.

Davis was to step down in July 2005, but in June 2004 he was forced to quit in the face of an impending shareholder revolt over his salary and bonuses. Investors were angered by a bonus share award of over £2m despite poor company performance. On July 19 2004 Davis' replacement, Philip Hampton, was appointed.

References

*Monbiot, George "Captive State" (MacMillan, 2000) ISBN 0-330-36943-1