Leaving in lockdown: Mike Coupe’s final interview

On the eve of his departure, Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe speaks exclusively to Retail Week about the merger that never was, dodging jail in Egypt and how the grocer has been transformed by Covid-19.

It’s not quite how Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe had planned to bid farewell to the business he has given so much to for so long.

Coupe will take off his orange name badge for the final time tomorrow, 15 years after he joined the grocer from Iceland.

But as he leaves Sainsbury’s London headquarters for good, there will be no hugs or handshakes, no pats on the back or even elbow bumps, to send Coupe off to retirement. Covid-19 has put paid to any hopes Coupe might have had of a fairytale ending to his storied grocery career.

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