Tesco on hunt for a ‘heavyweight’ boardroom figure as it swoops to replace John Allan
Tesco is understood to have approached a number of “heavyweight” boardroom figures, to scope out their interests in replacing outspoken chairman John Allan.
According to reports in Sky News, the FTSE 100 supermarket is working with headhunters to find a replacement for the leader who is set to leave the grocer in 2024.
Allan, has served nearly a decade at Tesco, and is set to be “timed out” by the grocer under corporate governance guidelines which means that he “would no longer be regarded as independent”.
Allan took over as chairman in March 2015, in the aftermath of one of Tesco’s worst periods ever as the supermarket had been accused in December 2014 of inflating its profits by £250m.
Over the past seven years, the chairman helped to stabilise the company whilst rebuilding its market share.
The end of his tenure comes as the supermarket is facing a new wake of challenges, mostly fueled by the cost-of-living crisis and a changing landscape for the supermarket sector – in which major players such as Asda and Morrisons have been snapped up by private equity groups.
However, the grocer appears to be navigating this storm quite well, with Tesco boosting ;like-for-like sales grew by 5.7 per cent in the 19 weeks ended 7 January 2023.
Furthermore, Tesco’s share price grew 0.30 pence this morning .