James Bailey has been appointed as the new boss of Waitrose. Named as Executive Director, he essentially replaces Rob Collins who left his role as Managing Director earlier this year following an overhaul of the John Lewis Partnership’s management structure aimed at bringing its two chains closer together.
Bailey spent 18 years at Sainsbury’s, latterly as Grocery Buying Director. He left the supermarket group last year after a restructuring of its fresh food department. Since then, he has worked as an adviser for several food & drink companies.
Bailey will start immediately, tasked with steering Waitrose through the current market turmoil. His responsibilities cover trading, merchandising, marketing and developing customer propositions.
The Partnership also revealed that recruitment was underway for an Executive Director for its struggling John Lewis chain, which is facing tough times ahead and possible store closures. Paula Nickolds stepped down as the chain’s Managing Director earlier this year.
The move marks a partial reversal of the plan put in place by the group’s previous Chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield. This entailed the roles of Managing Director at both Waitrose and John Lewis being scrapped in favour of a unified board structure with new job titles. It was intended to speed up decision-making and encourage the two brands to work together and strip out costs.
The two new executive directors will become members of the seven-person executive team under new Chairman Sharon White. They will also be tasked with working together to develop new combined products and services.
Rupert Thomas and Simon Coble remain as Trading Directors of Waitrose and John Lewis respectively and will report into the two new directors.
White commented: “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.”
NAM Implications:
- Good for Waitrose to have strengthened its management’s grocery experience.
- Sainsbury’s NAMs will be a good source of an up to date take on the new Waitrose Head.
- Meanwhile, anticipate an application of the basics at Waitrose…
