Ocado has promoted James Matthews to director of non-food - a month after its former non-food director Simon Belsham announced he was returning to Tesco.

Matthews has worked in a variety of roles for Ocado after starting as a software developer in 2005. A couple of years later he left to take an MBA at Harvard Business School, but returned.

Earlier this year, he moved over from his role as head of investor relations to become head of non-food, supporting Belsham in the expansion of the business.

Over the past 18 months, Ocado has expanded into non-food categories including home and garden, toys, sports and books.

Going into Christmas, Ocado has built up a range of about 9,000 non-food lines and plans to expand this further.

The opening of a new distribution centre for non-food products at Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire early next year will help Ocado to continue to expand the range.

Belsham led the creation of the non-food business after joining Ocado from Tesco 18 months ago, where he was group multichannel director, reporting to Tesco.com chief Laura Wade-Gery. She became Marks & Spencer’s executive director of multi-channel e-commerce last year.

Belsham will leave Ocado in the spring to return to Tesco. It is not yet known what role he will take up at the supermarket giant.

The current head of Tesco’s online business is Ken Towle, who returned to the UK in January last year having been CEO of Tesco China.

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