Sainsburys gameplan revealed

Sainsbury’s has revealed that it will ramp up its efforts in the gaming space to maintain and grow its market share.

We’re going after games big time,” Gurdeep Hunjan, Sainsbury’s DVD and games buyer, told MCV. Games is the biggest opportunity by far in the entertainment area and we’re in the process of putting together a three-year plan.”

Sainsbury’s unveiled plans to accelerate its non-food category and increase games space by 45 per cent, forecasting steep growth for games hardware and software. The firm also revealed that it will continue to invest in touch-screen advertising tech in-store, with a ‘Games Selector’ to be installed in 25 stores by the end of August.

Targets for games hardware have also doubled, with Hunjan admitting: Hardware is a challenge, but we’ll have more space for it and bundle offers in time for Christmas.”

But the firm left the industry in no doubt as to its intentions in the games space:

We’ve committed a huge amount of space over the last 18 months. I’m hoping that the numbers we do will be closer to what we can do in DVD.

Online will form part of the three-year plan, but that’s all I can say at the moment.

We’re at least a couple of years behind some of our grocery competitors, but we’re going to be working very hard to catch up quickly. This should start the ball rolling.”

However, Hunjan was sceptical about whether the pre-owned market would benefit Sainsburys at this time:

We haven’t closed our three-year plan yet – it could be considered, but there is at least ten other massive things we can do beforehand.”