Known as the Tigger for his boundless energy, Justin King had considerable spring in his step when he appeared on the Capital Conversation with Michael Hayman last night.
He spoke passionately about his time at the helm of Sainsbury’s, where he took the supermarket out of the shadows and established it as a pillar of British retail.
His secret? Something very close to home. “My mum was a loyal customer – she hated shopping in Sainsbury’s and told me what needed to be improved. All chief executives should run businesses for their mums!”
He also told aspiring retailers the key is go back to what you’re selling, “Be passionate and believe in your products, because if you don’t believe in it no-one else will.”
But his take on Brexit was considerably less buoyant, “A successful business community has been the bedrock of this fantastic country for hundreds of years. We are all heading towards a date where we don’t know the way in which we are going to be able to do business with our key trading partners. It seems to me to be a big problem.
“The day we took the decision to leave we condemned ourselves to be a less vibrant economy… but we must make the best of this bad job.”
This Tigger’s not out for the count.
You can watch Justin’s full interview here.