Sainsbury’s boss favoured profit over logic in the Asda merger

As the £12bn deal predictably falls flat, Chris Blackhurst questions the competence of Mike Coupe

Supermarket sweep: Coupe has proven himself to be a savvy operator in the past (Reuters)

Mike Coupe has always struck me as among the most sensible of businessfolk.

Whenever I met the Sainsbury’s chief executive he never came across as arrogant. His points were carefully constructed and argued. For years, he was in the background, the foil to the media-friendly Justin King. They made a good pairing.

Coupe, though, proved himself more than capable of stepping up, and succeeding King. The takeover of Argos was a calculating stroke of genius, a swoop by Sainsbury’s in one move on the catalogue and online supplier’s far superior distribution technology. It wasn’t the Argos branches he wanted, per se, but the technical know-how, and he got it.