Sainsbury has denied that it has chosen a successor to Sir Peter Davis as group chief executive when he steps up to become chairman in March 2004.
Speaking at its agm, current chairman Sir George Bull said there was no preliminary list of names, and the board had not conducted a review of internal and external candidates.
National newspapers have speculated that Sainsbury had a number of names on its wanted list, including head of food at Marks and Spencer and former Asda executive Justin King, Waitrose managing director Steven Esom, ex-Asda chief executive Paul Mason and Tesco commercial director Colin Smith.
But in response to a question from a shareholder, Sir George told the agm: “I promise you eyeball-to-eyeball we do not have a shortlist or any list of potential candidates yet for that job.”
When Sir Peter steps down as group chief executive in March, he will become group chairman for a minimum of 16 months, said Sir George, in order to maintain continuity and see through the business transformation programme.
He said Sir Peter would also help the new chief executive settle into his new role by offering as much of his time as the new recruit wanted. This would depend, said Sir George, on whether the new chief executive was an internal or external appointment and on the level of company knowledge. However, one shareholder suggested that Sir Peter should stay in his current role because he would cast a shadow over the new chief executive which would make it difficult to appoint someone of the right calibre. But Sir Peter replied: “I find it difficult to accept my heavy hand will stop us from recruiting the best people.
“We have recruited some very good people to the business in the last few years.”
And he added he was not prepared to stay on as group chief executive. “I’m 61 coming on 62 and this is a very demanding, physical job. I worked very well with Sir George, but I was not prepared to commit to serve under a new chairman whom I had no power to appoint or I didn’t know.”
>>p31 Under Pressure
Speaking at its agm, current chairman Sir George Bull said there was no preliminary list of names, and the board had not conducted a review of internal and external candidates.
National newspapers have speculated that Sainsbury had a number of names on its wanted list, including head of food at Marks and Spencer and former Asda executive Justin King, Waitrose managing director Steven Esom, ex-Asda chief executive Paul Mason and Tesco commercial director Colin Smith.
But in response to a question from a shareholder, Sir George told the agm: “I promise you eyeball-to-eyeball we do not have a shortlist or any list of potential candidates yet for that job.”
When Sir Peter steps down as group chief executive in March, he will become group chairman for a minimum of 16 months, said Sir George, in order to maintain continuity and see through the business transformation programme.
He said Sir Peter would also help the new chief executive settle into his new role by offering as much of his time as the new recruit wanted. This would depend, said Sir George, on whether the new chief executive was an internal or external appointment and on the level of company knowledge. However, one shareholder suggested that Sir Peter should stay in his current role because he would cast a shadow over the new chief executive which would make it difficult to appoint someone of the right calibre. But Sir Peter replied: “I find it difficult to accept my heavy hand will stop us from recruiting the best people.
“We have recruited some very good people to the business in the last few years.”
And he added he was not prepared to stay on as group chief executive. “I’m 61 coming on 62 and this is a very demanding, physical job. I worked very well with Sir George, but I was not prepared to commit to serve under a new chairman whom I had no power to appoint or I didn’t know.”
>>p31 Under Pressure
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