Arcadia to pull out of Sainsbury’s Reward

The Arcadia Group is withdrawing from Sainsbury’s Reward card scheme, leaving the supermarket with just four retail partners taking part in the loyalty programme.

From next month Sainsbury’s Reward card customers will no longer be able to redeem their points in Arcadia’s clothing chains, which include Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Top Shop, Wallis and Warehouse.

A spokeswoman for Arcadia refuses to go into detail about the reasons for the withdrawal, but says the group decided to pull out from the loyalty scheme, which it joined two years ago, following a review of all its partnerships.

“We review all our partnership schemes from time to time and we decided that it just was not working for us,” she says.

Last year Sainsbury’s removed BT and British Gas from the scheme, a decision which sparked speculation that the retailer planned to abandon the loyalty card. But a spokeswoman for the supermarket says it remains committed to the scheme and may sign up more partners in the future.

“We are continually reviewing the programme and looking at ways we can improve it,” she adds.

The Reward scheme has 17 million members. Scheme partners include Whitbread (Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Brewsters and TGI Friday), Blockbuster Video, Air Miles and Wright Link Ferries.

A review of the scheme last year revealed it costs Sainsbury’s more than £100m a year in redemptions to its partners.