United Kingdom grocer Asda has announced that it has poached Roger Burnley from rival supermarket Sainsbury’s to be its new chief operating officer.
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It has been reported that the move makes Mr Burnley one of the likely candidates to succeed current Asda chief executive Andy Clarke should he decide to step down.
His departure from Sainsbury’s will come as a blow to Mike Coupe, who took over as Sainsbury’s chief executive past year and who has also been battling to contend with the structural changes taking place in the British food retailing sector.
However Mr Clarke has insisted that he is not planning to leave anytime soon and said in August that he was “here to stay” despite Asda reporting the worst sales performance in its 50-year history.
“These are times of unprecedented turbulence for our industry”.
According to a statement issued by Sainsbury on Tuesday, Mr. Burnley is leaving the company with immediate effect to take up the role of chief operating officer at Asda.
Mr Burnley, who hails from Dewsbury, describes himself as a “born and bred Yorkshireman”. “He leaves Sainsbury’s retail and operations teams in excellent shape, along with our best wishes for the future”.
Intensifying competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl has had a substantial impact on the quartet of chains which dominate the industry: Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
As a result, Sainsbury’s said it now expects profits for the full year to be “moderately” ahead of the £548million pencilled in by the City, although that would still be a sharp fall from the £681million it posted in the previous year.
During his time at Sainsbury’s Mr Burnley spent weekends at home in Huddersfield – particularly when his beloved Huddersfield Town were playing.
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Asda and Sainsbury’s declined to comment on Mr Burnley’s move. In 2002 he was head-hunted by Matalan where he was appointed supply chain director.
