He served as the President of Sainsbury's, and sat in the House of Lords as a life peer and member of the Conservative Party.

Dubbed "The sale of the century" by the press, his family at the time retained control with an 85% stake.

[2] He led Sainsbury's into the United States through the purchase of Shaw's, a US supermarket chain, and started both the Homebase and Savacentre ventures.

The Company also boasted the highest sales per square foot in the food retailing industry and the market share of the UK supermarket business increased from 2.5% to 10.4%.

Sainsbury's also overtook both Tesco and Marks & Spencer (the latter shortly before his retirement on his 65th birthday on 2 November 1992) to become the UK's largest and most successful supermarket chain.

Although Lord Sainsbury retired, he was Life President of the retailer and continued to take an active interest in the business.

He toured stores with then chief executive Mike Coupe as well as being the family member always attending J Sainsbury plc Annual General Meetings.

[7] With his wife, he also ran the Linbury Trust, which offers grants to various projects in the fields of the Arts, Education, Environment & Heritage, Medical, Social Welfare and Developing Countries.

One of the most notable projects funded by the Linbury Trust was the 1990s redevelopment of the Royal Opera House in London.

The Linbury Studio Theatre in the building was named in recognition of the substantial contribution made by the trust.

In September 2010 he donated £25m to the British Museum, which the BBC reported as the biggest gift to the arts in two decades.