Sir Peter needs a breakthrough

The Sainsbury family owns 38% of shares in the supermarket chain, which is Britain's third biggest grocer.

Mr Davis had a meeting with the Sainsbury family on Friday, after the company unveiled a drop in summer sales.

"We are extremely encouraged with the support we have had from the family," the Sunday Times quoted a spokesman for Mr Davis as saying.

No barbecue blip

"We did meet with the family on Friday and it is part of our usual programme of meeting with major shareholders," a Sainsbury's spokeswoman said, declining to give any further details.

While other supermarkets benefited from the summer heat wave, J Sainsbury on Friday reported like-for-like sale fell 0.2% in the three months to 11 October.

The figures were a marked deterioration from 0.3% growth the group saw in the previous three months.

They were also a stark contrast to first half sales increases of 6.3% at Tescos, the UK's biggest grocer, and 9% at William Morrisons.

Mr Davis said he was not satisfied with the sales performance but that underlying profits were up in the first six months of the financial year.

But City retail analysts have started to predict Mr Davis early exit from the company; he is officially due to become chairman next year, though doubts are now being cast over the move.

"At a time when Tesco and William Morrison are producing high single digit sales growth, Sainsbury's performance is dreadful," BNP Paribas analyst Tim Attenborough told the newspaper.

Temporary headache

Mr Davis said the poor summer sales were due to problems caused by his shake-up of the company, which includes modernising stores, opening new distribution depots and new IT facilities.

He reportedly received the support on Friday of lawyer Judith Portrait who is trustee of the Sainsbury family's shareholding.

The turnaround is due to take three years, till March 2004, after which Mr Davis is supposed to become chairman.

Earlier this month, J Sainsbury was barred from bidding for Safeway - along with other supermarket rivals.

Sainsbury is now awaiting a decision on its right to buy store sites that winner Morrisons will be forced to sell if its takeover of Safeway is to go ahead.