Nisa Retail MD Peter Batt is leaving the business along with commercial director Ayaz Alam, The Grocer can reveal.
The Grocer understands the moves were confirmed in an email to Nisa staff this afternoon.
It is understood Nisa’s owner The Co-op is set to begin a search for a successor for Batt. In the interim basis Co-op MD for B2B & growth Jerome Saint- Marc will take over the active day-to-day management of Nisa. Co-op commercial director Sinead Bell will take over the management of the commercial Nisa team alongside her existing responsibilities.
“As we look ahead, there are significant growth opportunities for Nisa and our wider B2B business, as we prioritise building deeper relationships and delivering more value for our trusted partners,” said Saint-Marc.
“Having both played integral roles, both Peter Batt and Ayaz Alam have decided now is the time for them to pursue further opportunities outside of the business. We wish them our best and thank them for the contribution they have both made to our Co-op over many years of service.”
Batt has been Nisa MD since September 2022 when he took over from fellow Co-op appointee Michael Fletcher, who was recently named as Spar UK MD. Before that he had spent seven-and-a-half years as a divisional MD at the Co-op. He joined the Co-op from Sainsbury’s where he had also spent nearly eight years.
Alam has been responsible for the commercial and wholesale proposition at Nisa since the Co-op’s £137.5m purchase of the buying group in 2018. Before his time at the Co-op he also held a large number of senior trading roles at Asda.
Nisa’s performance has been an area of concern for the Co-op this year. In an otherwise positive set of interim results for the first half of 2024, its wholesale vision revenues fell 2.9% to £700m, resulting in a loss of £8m as it invested in lowering prices across hundreds of products to support its partners in “an increasingly challenging market”. This was compared to a £3m profit for the same period in 2023.
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