Dino Baia Adriano (24 April 1943 – 9 May 2018)[1][2] was a British businessman, and a chief executive of Sainsbury's, as well as being a director of Homebase, Shaws and a trustee of Oxfam. He was noted in financial circles for trying to turn round the fortunes of Sainsbury's after they lost their number one spot to Tesco.
Adriano worked at Sainsbury's for 36 years. He joined Sainsbury's in 1964 and worked his way up through the ranks, including moving over their DIY company, Homebase, and to their Shaws subsidiary in 1992[3] In 1996 he became deputy chief executive of Sainsbury's. In 1997 he became chairman and chief executive of Sainsbury's. He was the first chief executive of the company that was not one of the Sainsbury's family, in a company that still had the family as 40% shareholders[4] He left in January 2000.[5]
In 1999, Adriano agreed to be on the BBC2 television programme Back to the Floor, in which he, as managing director of leading retail companies, went back to the shop floor and worked there for a while with the cameras on him. In the series three episode "Supermarket swap", broadcast on 28 October 1999, Adriano was seen doing the routine things a shop worker had to do; he answered a question from an employee about his six-figure salary, but perhaps his most famous moment was when he decided that because he couldn't be bothered to wait for a price for a product while he worked on the busy checkouts; he just gave the item to the customer.[6]
