He goes on to explain how the trend whereby "children of today are quite likely to be less healthy than their parental generation" led to the founding six years ago of Active Kids, a scheme enabling shoppers to collect vouchers that their local schools and clubs can exchange for sports equipment.

"So our first foray into this space was very much around children in schools and activity," Sahota says, adding that the scheme this year "celebrated delivery of £100 million worth of equipment cumulatively to schools and clubs" – a substantial quantity by any yardstick.

"We offer as broad a range as possible and they choose from it," Sahota goes on.

"There are some perennial best-sellers every year, like skipping ropes and balls and things.

"In the last six years it has evolved to be much broader.

"We offer a range of coaching experiences.

"Dance has become quite a big part of it."

With the UK School Games this year added to Sainsbury's sponsorship portfolio, Sahota argues that the group contributes to programmes touching youngsters with all sorts of attitudes towards - and levels of aptitude for - physical activity and sports.

"We go across the spectrum," he says.

"With Youth Sport Trust (YST), we have a programme in sport called Top Activity, which is aimed at those who are completely non-participatory, to get them doing something.

"Active Kids is designed to sit in the middle and is about getting kids - particularly young girls actually because they tend to check out of formal sports quite early - to do something.

"And the UK School Games then takes on the elite side of the school sports spectrum.

"Overlaid on top of that is our Paralympics sponsorship."

A period of uncertainty is facing grass-roots sports following the UK Government's recent Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).



But Sahota asserts that, though the landscape may change, Sainsbury's commitment will not waver.

"I think we all need to just wait and see how the detail of the CSR unfolds," he says.

"We have made a commitment as an organisation to helping as many kids experience the joy and pleasure of activity in sport through Active Kids and that commitment remains in place.

"If anything you could argue we have been doing Big Society [a catchphrase of Prime Minister David Cameron] before Big Society was invented.

"This is exactly the kind of model the coalition government described when they say business and community coming together.

"There have been delivery partners within that space, such as YST, occasionally UK Sport, occasionally Sport England.

"We just need to see more clearly how the landscape will change, but our commitment won't waver."

Particular uncertainty confronts the UK School Games, with the government announcing a new Olympic-style school sports competition.

The Department for Culture Media and Sport's recently unveiled business plan suggests that the "School Olympics" could be launched in the Olympic Park as soon as next month.

Sainsbury's is committed, as headline sponsor, until next year's School Games in Sheffield.

Thereafter, it is too early to be sure, although Sahota's comments suggest that the company's continued involvement is fairly likely.

"If such an event took place, then if it was on the model of the UK school games, we would certainly wish to be involved," he says.

"Until it is clearer what it is and what it is called and who's running it and how it's being funded, other than a general sense of, 'Yes we'd like to be involved because of our commitment through Active Kids and our history in the UK School Games', then I can't commit to an amorphous entity.

"That said I think it's pretty clear the government have expressed their desire for such an event to take place.

"We believe that an all-inclusive peak event for schools for sport is important.

"That's why we have sponsored the UK School Games - because in the absence of any other model, that is the current peak event if you are an elite sportsperson at school.

"If the event, whatever it ends up being in 2012, is well-constructed and has a sustainable strategy behind it, then we will take a view about being involved beyond 2012."

On school sports below elite level, Sahota says: "Underneath that, I think it's important that there is a coherent structure for competitive sport within schools because the joy of winning and the galvanising effect of losing has been lost for many children.

"I am only 42 but I remember going through school competition, inter-school competition, county and then regions and then aiming for nationals.

"That structure has been lost in this country and I think it's a shame...because it doesn't help children to achieve the best they can in their chosen sport, not easily.

"I think it depends on where you live and the will of your LEA as to whether that coherence is present.

"If we as a country are to benefit from the legacy of 2012, then I think having a more coherent sporting structure in place for young people should be a priority.

"Otherwise where do your future Olympians and Paralympians come from?"

As a UK-focused company, London 2012 was always going to be a likely vehicle should Sainsbury's decide to pursue its interest in active lifestyles beyond the domain of schools.

But the International Olympic Committee doesn't allow retail sponsorships in Olympic commercial programmes.

So it is perhaps not surprising that Sainsbury's decided to partner with the Paralympics.

Says Sahota: "We watched with interest as Beijing stepped forward quite significantly as a Paralympics.

"The London 2012 bid was won off the promise of making the Paralympics in London the best ever.

"It sits very comfortably with our corporate values.

"Courage, determination, equality are all things that we work on on a daily basis within our own business, within our own company values.

"And also the personal stories around the Paralympians are incredibly inspiring.

"Every time we meet someone within this space, we think, 'Wow! what an amazing athlete, but also what an amazing person'.

"We saw far greater resonance for our business and also potentially a far greater opportunity to make a mark as a sponsor and help to make this Paralympics the best ever.

"We took a decision very early on which said we are not the kind of business to wait for the Paralympics to become huge - we will help to make them huge.

"There is a landscape there that's more flexible for us as a business than what one might argue is a more crowded space in the Olympics.

"It is the world's second-biggest sporting event - it just happens to be preceded by the world's biggest.

"For the first time we have a national organisation with 900 stores, serving last week nearly 22 million people, as a partner of the Paralympic Games.

"Our ability therefore to connect to communities across the country – not just in London – and help to communicate the power of the Games and help to make the games the best ever, we believe is unrivalled."


Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King (pictured with Ellie Simmonds), incidentally, sits on the LOCOG board, although Sahota points out that he was "kept almost entirely separate" from the company's London 2012 negotiations.

"We did not want to put anyone in a position of compromise," Sahota explains.

"So it was an entirely commercial conversation from which he as chief exec was absent unless he was being present as a member of the Sainsbury's board."

When it came to activating its sponsorship, Sahota says the company focused deliberately on "our own colleagues" first, recognising that creating what he describes as "passionate ambassadors for what we are about to do with our own people" was the key to success.

"Just last week," he says, "we completed the process of selecting 150 colleagues who will become Gamesmakers.

"We have the opportunity to second a number of our people to [the organising committee] LOCOG, which we will take in full.

"We had a Paralympic speaker at our colleague conference in September where 5,000 people came to the NEC."

But it will move on – "rapidly", Sahota says – to Sainsbury's customers.

"We will create commercial opportunities off the back of our sponsorship because that is what sponsors do," he acknowledges.

"But in doing so we will help to break down the barrier of understanding behind the Paralympics.

"We can help tell that story and get the country to the point where absolutely you want to go to the Paralympics.

"At the moment everyone is talking about 'the Games'.

"There will come a time soon when we talk about 'the Team'...and start to bring alive the rich human stories of the individuals who are representing this country at London 2012.

"I am talking about the Paralympics team here.

"That's when the emotional connection becomes a far more meaningful one.

"The power of the individual's journey helps to explain the journey that the country's on.

"[Broadcaster] Channel 4 will create household names of some Paralympians through their own broadcasting work.

"I can see us in the summer of 2012 with a country knowing as many Paralympians as Olympians in the team of 2012 and celebrating both teams with equal fervour."

Sponsoring the Paralympics, rather than the Olympics themselves, also allows Sainsbury's more flexibility in the ways it can promote its own brand.

With a commercial broadcaster, Channel 4, awarded the rights for the Paralympics as opposed to the BBC, Sainsbury's will be able, should it choose, to have advertisements broadcast during Games coverage.

In August, it was announced that Sainsbury's and fellow Tier One partner BT had signed a deal to become joint sponsors of Channel 4's Paralympic-related programming.

"There are bumpers on each side of the ad breaks where both ourselves and BT have a sponsorship credit," Sahota says.

He goes on: "The Paralympics is a completely different space anyway in terms of venues.

"The Olympics [have] completely clean venues, no branding -in the Paralympics you are allowed branding in the venues."

Since Sainsbury's is a retailer, it seems appropriate to end with its plans for selling London 2012-branded merchandise.

"We will sell both Olympic and Paralympic merchandise," Sahota reveals.

"Our ability as a Paralympic sponsor to create far greater theatre in store off the back of our Paralympic rights I think will help us to actually communicate the message to the country.

"We will seek to sell probably more Paralympic merchandise than Olympic merchandise, but many products carry both badges.

"The Mandeville mascot launched on August 29 and sold reasonably well.

"I think it is quite early days.

"We are hoping this side of Christmas to put a broader range of products online as opposed to in-store because I think at the moment it is more of a collectors' market than it is a mass market."

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938