Sainsburys ECONOMIC

Domain: Economic (Economic) Entity scope: J Sainsbury plc and its consumer brands and residual financial-services business, including Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar, Nectar360, Smart Charge, Sainsbury’s Bank and Sainsbury’s Money.^{1, 2, 3} Core Sainsbury’s Bank personal-loan, credit-card and retail-deposit portfolios transferred to NatWest in 2025, and the wider retail-bank transformation completed in July 2026.^{4, 5, 3}

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Sainsbury’s has documented historical commercial relationships with Israeli agricultural exporters, particularly Mehadrin and EDOM; Sainsbury’s confirmed both as suppliers in 2013, while retained material also identifies Arava as a supplier and contains historical campaigner evidence concerning Hadiklaim.^{6, 7, 8}

Mehadrin is the most extensively documented supplier in the retained material. Sainsbury’s stocked Mehadrin-supplied Hass avocados and grapefruit in late 2019 and early 2020, while photographs at the Beqa’ot settlement packing house showed Mehadrin packaging labelled “Produce of Israel” for produce originating on occupied West Bank land.^{9, 10} War on Want identified Mehadrin as a major Medjoul-date exporter operating within settlements.⁶

EDOM was confirmed as a Sainsbury’s supplier in 2013, and War on Want-cited research reported that it sourced settlement produce while labelling it “Produce of Israel.”^{6, 7} Hadiklaim is a date-grower cooperative linked in historical campaigner material to concerns about settlement-origin Medjoul dates.⁸ Agrexco, Arava and Adafresh appear in the historical research, but no post-2020 primary evidence confirms their continuing supply relationships with Sainsbury’s.^{6, 7}

Israeli-origin products documented on Sainsbury’s shelves in the 2019/2020 material included mangoes, potatoes, avocados, grapefruit, persimmons, samphire and fresh herbs.⁹ Historical sources also address Medjoul dates.^{6, 10, 8} No public trade volumes, shipment records, contract values, importer-of-record information or seasonal procurement data were identified for these products.^{11, 1, 12}

Sainsbury’s older, undated GM Tier-1 supplier list identifies RAM Quality Products Ltd., at 5 Yahalom Street, Barkan Industrial Area, Israel, as a general-merchandise main production site, reporting 65 workers, a workforce recorded as 92% male and 8% female, and no workers’ committee or union.¹³ This is a primary corporate disclosure of a supplier-site relationship, but its date and the products supplied, purchasing entity, contract dates, spend, import arrangements, sales destination and current status are unresolved.¹³ A direct re-check on 7 September 2026 found no RAM Quality or Barkan entry in the separate 2025 GM-and-clothing Tier-1 supplier list; the older RAM entry must not be attributed to that document or used as proof of post-2024 continuity.^{13, 14} Its absence from the 2025 list does not itself establish a verified termination of the relationship.^{13, 14}

RAM’s website presents plastic storage, utility-cabinet, shelving, playhouse, garden and pet-product lines, and states that it sells worldwide and can customise products and packaging.^{15, 16} A 2026 Ambiente exhibitor listing describes RAM as an Israeli plastics manufacturer exporting since 1991 and working mainly with large European retailers.¹⁷ Neither supplier-side source identifies a Sainsbury’s SKU, order, brand, contract or the location where a particular Sainsbury’s item was manufactured.^{15, 18, 16, 17}

The 2025 GM-and-clothing supplier list identifies Starplast Industries (1967) Ltd., at the Elon-Tavor industrial zone, Afula, Israel, as a general-merchandise main production site with 224 workers, comprising 140 male and 84 female workers, and records a workers’ committee or union as present.¹⁴ The document does not specify Starplast’s supplied products, relationship dates, spend, import arrangements, ongoing status, or whether its goods reached Sainsbury’s shelves after 2025.¹⁴

The official UK non-eligible-location list includes “Barkan I.Z.” and associated Barkan postal-code entries for tariff-origin purposes.¹⁹ Read with Sainsbury’s older disclosure of RAM’s Barkan Industrial Area address, this supports a locality-level connection between the stated site location and the listed Barkan I.Z. locality.^{13, 19} The Government list does not provide RAM’s individual street address or establish that a particular RAM shipment claimed tariff preference, and the supplier list does not establish the date, product, volume, spend or current status of the relationship.^{13, 19}

Mehadrin’s 2022 ESG report states that it ships thousands of containers of citrus, avocados and dates from Israel through a global sales and logistics system, and its current website describes it as a global supplier of citrus and dates and a vertically integrated avocado and citrus grower.^{20, 21} These sources corroborate exporter capability but do not establish Sainsbury’s as a current customer.^{20, 21}

No post-2020 primary contract, invoice, customs entry, supplier confirmation or Sainsbury’s product listing confirms whether Mehadrin, EDOM, Hadiklaim, Arava, Adafresh or Galilee currently supplies Sainsbury’s.^{6, 9, 7, 20} no public evidence identified of a wholly owned Sainsbury’s Israeli importer, regional joint venture, dedicated importer-of-record entity, third-party or white-label intermediary, or seasonal procurement schedule for Israeli-origin goods.^{11, 1, 12}

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

2007–2008 mislabelling. Following a 2007 ITN investigation, Sainsbury’s admitted mislabelling West Bank-grown Medjoul dates as “Produce of Israel” and said it would label West Bank produce accordingly.¹⁰ Activist photographs from 2008 showed Sainsbury’s own-brand Medjoul dates labelled “Grown in West Bank” inside the Jordan Valley settlements of Netiv Hagdud and Massua; the historical evidence described settlement-grown produce sold under a generic West Bank label rather than one identifying settlement origin.¹⁰

DEFRA and current UK policy context. UK government guidance issued in December 2009 stated that describing occupied-territory produce as “Produce of Israel” was a consumer-information offence and recommended “Israeli settlement produce” or “Palestinian produce.”²² In a 23 June 2025 written answer, the FCDO stated that the UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including settlements, as part of Israel; that settlement goods do not receive UK–Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement preferences; and that the Government supports accurate labelling.²³

An official UK importer notice, updated 22 August 2025, states that products made in Israeli settlements in territories under Israeli administration since June 1967 cannot receive preferential tariff treatment under the UK–Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement and directs importers to the non-eligible-location list.²⁴ A 2026 Government document states that importers claiming UK–Israel preference must declare that goods were not produced in specified noneligible locations and that HMRC may verify origin on a risk- and intelligence-led basis.²⁵ These are general regulatory statements rather than findings about Sainsbury’s products, imports or labels.^{25, 24}

HMRC’s 2009 written answers reported UK-wide findings concerning six settlement-origin agricultural consignments claiming Israeli preference, 49 fresh-produce examinations since July 2008, and two herb-labelling irregularities; none identifies Sainsbury’s, its suppliers or a Sainsbury’s product.^{25, 26}

Later historical product evidence. Corporate Occupation’s 2020 update reported that Sainsbury’s SO Organic Medjoul dates had, by 2016, been relabelled “Product of either the US or Israel,” which the source treated as suggesting that West Bank sourcing may have ended or been rerouted.⁹ The same material documented Mehadrin-supplied avocados and grapefruit in 2019 and early 2020, but neither item establishes current supply or current labelling practice.⁹

Sainsbury’s states that it does not knowingly source own-brand products from West Bank settlements and that it sources from Palestinian growers with separate labelling.²⁷ no public evidence identified of a current corporate policy specifically governing sourcing from, or labelling of, occupied-territory goods beyond that historical corporate statement.²⁷

For FY2024/25, Sainsbury’s SASB disclosure reported no significant own-brand food-and-grocery incidents requiring corrective action and no regulatory fines or settlements relating to own-brand food and grocery products.²⁸ Its FY2025/26 SASB disclosure reports the same outcome for that year.²⁹ Neither disclosure specifically addresses Israeli or settlement-origin goods, country-of-origin labelling, or third-party branded products.^{28, 29}

An Ethical Consumer retailer table based on observations from December 2025 to January 2026 named five retailers as selling Israeli-origin Medjoul dates and did not list Sainsbury’s.^{30, 29} That omission is not evidence that Sainsbury’s did not stock Israeli-origin dates, and the source’s separate rating-based assertion about Sainsbury’s does not provide product, store, label-image, date or primary evidence capable of verifying current sourcing.^{30, 29}

ICJP notices. On 30 October 2024, ICJP issued legal notices to eight UK supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, invoking the International Criminal Court Act 2001 and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and referring to dates, mangoes, avocados, tahini, halva and bakery products as alleged settlement-linked goods.³¹ ICJP requested clarification of product origins, steps to cease sales, and due diligence against mislabelling or repackaging; its notice named exporters including Mehadrin, Galilee and Hadiklaim, without establishing that each then supplied Sainsbury’s.³¹

On 13 June 2025, ICJP issued a further notice directly to Sainsbury’s alleging continued stocking of settlement products and stating that Sainsbury’s had not responded to a 4,500-signature Belfast petition concerning its Kennedy Centre branch.³² These notices are evidence of legal notice and advocacy allegations, not an adjudication or independent confirmation of a particular post-2024 product, supplier contract or sale.^{32, 31} No independently verifiable post-November 2024 purchase, product listing, customs record or corporate response was identified in the supplied evidence.^{32, 31}

SodaStream. Sainsbury’s stocked SodaStream, and at its 2014 AGM the board acknowledged stocking the product when it was manufactured at Mishor Adumim in the West Bank.³³ SodaStream relocated its main plant to Lehavim, southern Israel, in 2015, while SodaStream’s support materials state that specified Pepsi-branded, bubly and SodaStream Classics flavour lines are produced in Ashkelon, Israel.^{34, 35} ICJP’s November 2025 retailer notice and August 2025 Advertising Standards Authority complaint record continuing advocacy concerns, but neither is an ASA determination nor proof that Sainsbury’s then stocked a particular SodaStream item.^{34, 36}

2014 kosher-shelf incident. During the 2014 Gaza conflict, the manager of a Sainsbury’s Holborn branch pre-emptively cleared the kosher section, which was described as mostly UK-made products, during a pro-Palestinian protest; Sainsbury’s apologised, restocked the section and said the action was an individual decision rather than company policy.³⁷

No public evidence identified of an official enforcement decision, customs audit, DEFRA finding, Advertising Standards Authority ruling, court judgment or parliamentary finding specific to Sainsbury’s settlement-origin labelling, sale, importation or tariff treatment.^{22, 28, 38, 25, 29, 24}

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

No public evidence identified of J Sainsbury plc holding Israeli government bonds, Israel-linked equity stakes, direct investments connected to Israeli state institutions or settlement enterprises, Israel Bonds underwriting, or a publicly disclosed Israel-focused portfolio.^{39, 1, 4}

Sainsbury’s January 2025 bond issuance was a standard UK corporate debt placement with no identified Israeli component.³⁹ Its accounts and supplied corporate disclosures do not identify Israeli real estate, logistics facilities, an Israeli operating subsidiary, an Israeli R&D centre, Israeli sovereign securities, Israeli lending counterparties or Israeli insurance partners.^{1, 12, 4, 5} The complete 2026 related-undertakings schedule identifies overseas branches in Bangladesh and India but no Israel- or Occupied-Palestinian-Territory-domiciled group entity or branch.⁴⁰

Sainsbury’s Financial Services Limited, formerly Sainsbury’s Bank plc, is active at 33 Charterhouse Street, was incorporated on 12 November 1996, and on 24 June 2026 changed from a public to a private limited company under its current name.⁴¹ On 1 July 2026, Sainsbury’s stated that Sainsbury’s Bank had ceased to be PRA-authorised and no longer held banking permissions, and that Sainsbury’s Money would be powered by Sainsbury’s Financial Services Ltd through a partner-led model.³

Sainsbury’s agreed on 20 June 2024 to sell the Bank’s personal-loan, credit-card and retail-deposit portfolios to NatWest; the High Court approved the transfer on 16 April 2025, legal title transferred on 1 May 2025, and migration of more than one million customers completed in November 2025.⁴ The Argos card portfolio sale to NewDay was announced in October 2024, travel money transferred to Fexco in February 2026, insurance is offered through Allianz UK, and cash-related services transferred to NoteMachine within the partner-led model.^{5, 3} No Israeli financing, insurer, security or lending counterparty is identified in those disclosures.^{5, 3}

No public evidence identified of Sainsbury’s Financial Services underwriting Israeli sovereign debt or Israel Bonds, conducting Israeli trade-finance or lending activity, or holding Israeli sovereign securities in the reviewed records.^{4, 41, 3} The reviewed disclosures do not provide an asset-by-asset treasury or investment-portfolio screen.^{4, 3}

Operational Presence & Market Activity

J Sainsbury plc is an active UK public limited company, incorporated on 10 November 1922, with its registered office at 33 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA, registered SIC activity of food-led non-specialised retail, latest filed accounts covering the year to 28 February 2026, and a latest confirmation statement dated 25 July 2026.^{42, 43} Sainsbury’s states that John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened its first store in 1869.³

The 2026 annual-report material describes Sainsbury’s as a UK plc, with approximately 140,000 colleagues and investment in British and Irish agriculture.¹ Current corporate materials describe Sainsbury’s stores, convenience outlets, Argos and related digital businesses as UK-focused.^{43, 3}

No public evidence identified of Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat, Nectar, Nectar360, Smart Charge, Sainsbury’s Financial Services, or the disclosed group subsidiaries operating stores, distribution facilities, offices, warehouses, support centres, branches, joint ventures, R&D facilities, employing staff, or holding tax registrations in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories.^{1, 12, 2, 43, 41, 3, 40} No current corporate filing or the complete related-undertakings schedule discloses an Israel segment, Israeli workforce, Israeli tax registration, Israel-attributed revenue, Israel/OPT real estate, or an Israel/OPT entity or branch.^{1, 12, 43, 40}

The identified Israel-linked mechanisms are historical and potentially continuing supply-chain purchases, the older undated RAM Quality listing, the 2025 Starplast general-merchandise production-site listing, and retail sale of Israeli-made products, rather than a disclosed Israeli operating presence.^{9, 33, 13, 35, 14}

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

J Sainsbury plc is UK-incorporated and London-registered, with no evidence in the supplied statutory and corporate records of Israeli incorporation, Israeli headquarters, Israeli tax residence, Preferred Technology Enterprise status or permanent-establishment status.^{42, 1, 43, 3} Companies House does not publish a persons-with-significant-control register for the company because its voting shares are admitted to trading on a UK regulated market.^{44, 45} The official officer register corroborates current director and secretary appointments but is not an ownership record.⁴⁵

The company’s current consumer-brand presentation includes Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar, Nectar360, Smart Charge, Sainsbury’s Bank and Sainsbury’s Money.^{2, 43, 3} Its governance page identifies Argos Limited, JS Information Systems Limited, Nectar 360 Limited, Sainsbury Propco A Limited, Sainsbury Propco B Limited, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd and Sainsbury’s Tyne Property Holdings Limited as applicable UK subsidiaries for section 172 statements; this is a disclosed subset rather than an exhaustive legal-entity list.^{12, 41}

Martin Scicluna is Chair, Simon Roberts is Chief Executive, and Bláthnaid Bergin is Chief Financial Officer; the listed non-executive directors are Jo Bertram, Katie Bickerstaffe, Steve Hare, Jo Harlow, Adrian Hennah, Tanuj Kapilashrami and Keith Weed CBE, with Nick Grant serving as General Counsel and Company Secretary.^{2, 43, 45} The Board is described as the principal decision-making body, with the Chair leading the Board and the Chief Executive executing agreed strategy.^{12, 41}

As updated on the company’s major-shareholders page on 5 August 2026, VESA Equity Investment S.à r.l. held 235,773,510 shares, representing 10.00% of voting rights, with notification dated 7 November 2024.⁴⁶ Other disclosed significant shareholders were BlackRock (9.16%), Qatar Holdings (6.82%), Schroders (5.22%), Pzena Investment Management (5.05%) and Bestway Group UK (5.01%).⁴⁶ These disclosures identify corporate holders and do not map all ultimate natural-person beneficial owners.^{44, 46}

VESA describes Daniel Křetínský as its founder and Investment Committee Chair and says it was founded in 2018 with the support of long-term business partner Patrik Tkáč.⁴⁷ Its portfolio page lists J Sainsbury’s among its interests and describes that interest as approximately 10% voting rights, but does not identify an Israeli company, Israeli subsidiary or Israeli investment and does not establish a complete VESA asset inventory.⁴⁸

VESA’s 5 September 2019 announcement stated that Daniel Křetínský held 53% and exercised control, and Patrik Tkáč held 47%.⁴⁹ A 2020 SEC Schedule 13D filed jointly by VESA, EP Investment and Křetínský stated that EP Investment was VESA’s principal shareholder and that EP Investment was ultimately beneficially owned by Křetínský.⁵⁰ These dated disclosures do not establish VESA’s current ownership percentages, voting rights or control arrangements for Křetínský or Tkáč.^{49, 50}

No public evidence identified of Israeli founding, Israeli state ownership, Israeli government-appointed directors, Israeli critical-infrastructure designation, Israel-specific golden-share governance, acquired Israeli operating companies or controlling Israeli capital.^{42, 44, 12, 43, 41, 40} Named live searches of Křetínský, Tkáč, the Chair, Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer, every current Board member, VESA, EP Equity Investment and EP Investment identified no Israeli-company investment through their disclosed personal, corporate or family-office vehicles.^{12, 2, 46, 49, 47, 48, 50} This is a bounded public-record negative finding; private unreported interests are not inferred as evidence.

Sainsbury’s is a founding member of the Ethical Trading Initiative and requires suppliers to meet the ETI Base Code.⁵¹ At its 2014 AGM, shareholders questioned whether trade with Israeli companies operating in settlements was compatible with Sainsbury’s human-rights position; the board rejected that argument and described the company as a “non-political organisation.”^{33, 27}

The supplied document-scoped review found no mention of Sainsbury’s in the specified OHCHR settlement-database updates, A/HRC/59/23, DBIO 2024/2025, PAX, Who Profits, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, KLP, BDS, Al-Haq, BankTrack, insurance-sector reports, or the cited UN Special Procedures communication.^{43, 26, 52} This is document-scoped only and does not establish that group entities, suppliers, shareholders, directors or principals do not appear in other underlying databases or investigations.^{43, 52}

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

The documented economic connection to Israel is principally commercial revenue received by Israeli exporters where they supplied goods for sale through Sainsbury’s UK retail network.^{6, 9, 7} Where settlement operations are documented for suppliers such as Mehadrin and EDOM, UK sales may generate revenue for Israeli companies operating on occupied land, but the Sainsbury’s-specific quantum is not publicly quantified.^{6, 10, 7}

The older RAM Quality and 2025 Starplast entries are primary corporate supplier-site disclosures, but do not disclose the products involved, payment recipient, purchasing entity, contract duration, spend, import path, sales volume or margin.^{13, 14} Accordingly, these lists do not quantify any revenue attributable to either site from Sainsbury’s purchasing.^{13, 14}

Sainsbury’s does not disclose sourcing expenditure, supplier payments, sales or margin by Israeli origin, and no public trade-volume or contract-value data were identified.^{11, 1} no public evidence identified of Sainsbury’s revenue attributed to Israel, Israeli tax payments, corporate donations to Israeli institutions, profits repatriated through Israeli ownership, or purchases of Israeli government securities.^{39, 1, 46}

The UK Government’s June 2026 business-risk guidance strongly advises against economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements, expressly including purchases and procurements in, or directly benefiting, settlements.⁵³ The Foreign Secretary stated on the same date that British businesses should not conduct economic or financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements.³⁸ These are general policy statements, not findings that Sainsbury’s engaged in such activity or that a particular Sainsbury’s supplier relationship breached the guidance.^{53, 38}