The about-turn has been dramatic given that, only a matter of months previously, King's predecessor, Sir Peter Davis, had been championing the company's new supply chain as its saviour in his "business transformation programme". It was going to help claw back the lead Tesco had secured to relegate Sainsbury's share of the market to 15.3 per cent (Tesco has a 28 per cent share and Asda has 16.9 per cent). By pruning a network of 25 distribution centres to just nine facilities in eight regions in the UK and building four giant warehouses - two of them fully automated - for £400 million each, Sainsbury's had hoped to catch up and overtake its rivals.