Sainsbury's Finance to up staff numbers

SAINSBURY'S Finance aims to grow the workforce at its Edinburgh head office by up to 15 per cent this year to cope with a growth in its customer base, David Fisher, who was yesterday appointed as the firm's chief executive, said.

The business – which is a joint venture between the supermarket chain and Lloyds Banking Group – currently has 150 staff at the Gyle business park.

Speaking to The Scotsman on the day of his appointment, Fisher said the company was on course to beat last year's profits haul of 19 million.

Fisher, who has served as interim chief executive since January, was previously group human resources director at HBOS and oversaw the integration of Lloyds' funds management business into Scottish Widows.

He said: "While we don't have plans for global domination, there are 14 million Sainsbury's shoppers overall and we currently serve about 1.4 million of them with personal finance products. So the potential for this business is massive."

He said there are currently no plans for Sainsbury's to buy out Lloyds' share of the business – as supermarket rival Tesco did with its own joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland – nor are there plans to re-enter the mortgage market.