Exclusive Julian Hunt Sainsbury has rejigged its trading division with a raft of changes that it hopes will make the business more effective in responding to the needs of consumers ­ and suppliers. The changes will also result in 75 job losses. But trading director Stuart Mitchell said: "The whole thing is about us being efficient and moving at pace." One of the biggest changes is the decision to take out the category manager level from the trading teams. Mitchell said: "We have been listening hard to suppliers' views on dealing with Sainsbury and the key thing was having clear accountability and knowing who was responsible for making decisions." The cross functional category teams will now be run at the general manager level, with buyers focused on cost of goods and "generally being good buyers". The multiple divides its trading into three business units, each headed by a director into whom the general managers report. And Mitchell said the units would now have more authority and more direct responsibility for delivering profit to the bottom line. The reshuffle is good news for Andrew Freestone and Phil Barnes, who are promoted, but general managers Robin Tucker, Barry Blackmore and Howard Bentley will be leaving the company. At the same time, Sainsbury has merged its technical and quality teams. "If quality is what we are famous for, we are putting best in class together," said Mitchell. He has also taken responsibility for the operational side of Sainsbury's store formats programme. "We felt putting that into trading would enable us to pull key levers of pricing, promotions, quality and choice." New format director Ian Jones joins from Sainsbury's retail side next week. He will report directly to Mitchell. "Ian will be an integral part of the team working on the best solutions for each format." Sainsbury has also taken the opportunity to "tidy up a few other loose ends". Pharmacy and petrol will now be handled by the non food business unit headed by James McCann. And the restaurants operation moves from retail to become the responsibility of Ian Merton, who is in charge of the fresh foods business unit. {{NEWS }}

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