29th Apr 2020 10:08
(Alliance News) - John Lewis Partnership on Wednesday said it has named James Bailey as the new executive director of its Waitrose grocery unit, effective immediately.
James Bailey, who spent 18 years at J Sainsbury PLC and was most recently its buying director for grocery, left the FTSE 100 supermarket chain back in July of last year.
Sky News late on Tuesday had reported that John Lewis Partnership was to name Bailey as the new head of Waitrose.
John Lewis Partnership added that it is also recruiting for an executive director for its eponymous department store chain.
Chair Sharon White said: "These new executive director roles at Waitrose and John Lewis will allow us to get the best of both worlds out of our new management structure. We'll have all the benefits of bringing together activities that are best organised pan-partnership and reducing duplication while still recognising that there are important differences in the way you run a department store and a supermarket.
"I am thrilled that James is joining us. He has had an exceptional 18 years at Sainsbury's, across finance, strategy, convenience and commercial and then latterly as buying director for grocery with accountability for more than half the company's turnover and three times the size of Waitrose."
The company back in October announced plans to integrate management teams of its department store chain and grocery unit.
The partnership said at the time that the integration of John Lewis and Waitrose into a single business "will enable a faster delivery of better products and services for our customers".
The measures will see the units managed by a single executive team, comprised of seven new director roles, rather than separate divisional boards. The executive director roles at each chain will be part of the seven member top team.
The executive directors are charged with "trading, merchandising, marketing and developing customer propositions", John Lewis Partnership explained on Wednesday.
The news of Bailey's appointment comes after John Lewis announced it will embark on a strategic review following a third consecutive year of falling profit.
Its March annual report showed profit before bonuses, tax, exceptional items, and accounting changes for the 52 weeks to January 25 was down 23% to GBP123 million, though the statutory figure rose 25% to GBP146 million.
The company's revenue was 1.6% lower at GBP10.15 billion.
"This is a weaker performance than we had hoped for, driven by significantly reduced profitability in John Lewis. Despite a solid performance in Waitrose, it is our third year of declining profit across the partnership as a whole," said Chair White back in March.
She took the John Lewis Partnership chair earlier this year, replacing Charlie Mayfield. White had been chief executive officer of Ofcom, joining the UK telecommunications industry regulator in 2015.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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