Aldi has promoted its national buying MD Julie Ashfield to a new role of chief commercial officer, as part of a shake-up of the board structure.
Ashfield will be responsible for both buying and sustainability in her new statutory board role at Aldi UK.
The shake-up also includes the creation of two chief operating officer roles, who along with Ashfield will report to Aldi UK CEO Giles Hurley.
The new ‘best practice structure’ replaces three group MD roles, previously filled by Oliver King, Dan Ronald and Niall O’Connor.
King is moving to a global role as Aldi’s international customer interaction officer, while O’Connor is transferring to be its national country MD for Ireland.
Ronald is taking one of the new COO roles under Hurley. He will be responsible for regional store and warehouse operations.
The other COO role is going to Ruth Doyle, who has been promoted from MD of HR. She will take responsibility for both HR and supply chain in her new role.
Ashfield has been the discounter’s buying MD since 2017, and is one of the best-known faces in UK grocery, having appeared alongside Anita Rani in two series of the Channel 4 show Aldi’s Next Big Thing, in which new British suppliers compete for a listing.
She has been replaced as national buying MD by Stephen Eivers, who has been Aldi MD for customer interaction since 2015.
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