Shares in Sainsbury’s nudged upwards today after the group confirmed it is planning a series of new stores in the West Midlands.

Around 4,000 jobs are to be created in the Dorridge, Erdington, and Longbridge regions in addition to the 6,500 jobs that the supermarket group claims to have created across the UK last year.

In an interview earlier today, Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s [pictured], said the group is targetting a further 20,000 jobs throughout the country over the coming three years.

In Erdington, Birmingham City Council is still awaiting the application for a new store, but a ‘destination’ store in Longbridge town centre has already been confirmed with 2013 set as a target for the opening.

In Bristol, Sainsbury’s has had plans approved to redevelop Ashton Gate Stadium – the current home of Bristol City Football Club – for a new megastore to replace an existing, smaller store nearby.

Talks related to a similar deal in Southend-on-Sea in Essex are also continuing, with the supermarket giant rumoured to be interested in buying Southend United’s Roots Hall stadium.

In the group’s annual report last month, King said that Sainsbury’s had opened six specialist food colleges over the past year to train 10,000 staff.

In the same report, plans were confirmed to review the 6,500 Sainsbury’s own-brand products, days ahead of archrival Tesco making a similar announcement.

In the 12 months to 11 May 2011, the value of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets’ property portfolio rose £0.7 billion, from £9.8 billion in 2010 to £10.5 billion in the latest results.