Sainsbury's has poached Mark McCammond, operations director of retail for Spar’s Northern Ireland wholesaler Henderson Group, to take charge of its convenience stores in northern England and Scotland, The Grocer has learnt.
McCammond is due to start his new role as regional managing director for convenience stores next month, but in the meantime is working out his notice with Henderson Group, where he is in charge of 73 Spar stores. He will replace Kevin Plant, who is moving to work on Sainsbury's supermarkets in the north. McCammond will report to Sainsbury's convenience director Dido Harding.
“Mark has extensive knowledge of the convenience market and will bring with him a unique skills set that will help us to deliver against our commitment to grow our convenience business by 50 new stores this year and 100 next year,” said Harding.
There are already 276 Sainsbury's Local stores and McCammond’s role will be to aggressively expand this number in the north. Despite his knowledge of retail in Northern Ireland, there were no plans to launch Sainsbury's Local in the province, stressed a Sainsbury's spokeswoman.
“McCammond is perfect for this role,” said one industry insider. “He knows all about convenience retailing. It’s a massive job but he will be up to it.”
McCammond has proved himself an innovator at Henderson, particularly with food to go. He introduced a number of brands to Spar, including Kitsu noodles, Treehouse smoothie bars and Censa Fairtrade coffee. Other Henderson stores offer over-the-counter ice cream and have worked with concessions such as Subway, Cuisine de France and Supermac’s.
Henderson has introduced the Eurospar format, and was first to introduce self-service checkouts in Northern Ireland. It said that McCammond had played a key part in the group’s growth over the past eight years and the search for his successor was at an advanced stage.
McCammond is due to start his new role as regional managing director for convenience stores next month, but in the meantime is working out his notice with Henderson Group, where he is in charge of 73 Spar stores. He will replace Kevin Plant, who is moving to work on Sainsbury's supermarkets in the north. McCammond will report to Sainsbury's convenience director Dido Harding.
“Mark has extensive knowledge of the convenience market and will bring with him a unique skills set that will help us to deliver against our commitment to grow our convenience business by 50 new stores this year and 100 next year,” said Harding.
There are already 276 Sainsbury's Local stores and McCammond’s role will be to aggressively expand this number in the north. Despite his knowledge of retail in Northern Ireland, there were no plans to launch Sainsbury's Local in the province, stressed a Sainsbury's spokeswoman.
“McCammond is perfect for this role,” said one industry insider. “He knows all about convenience retailing. It’s a massive job but he will be up to it.”
McCammond has proved himself an innovator at Henderson, particularly with food to go. He introduced a number of brands to Spar, including Kitsu noodles, Treehouse smoothie bars and Censa Fairtrade coffee. Other Henderson stores offer over-the-counter ice cream and have worked with concessions such as Subway, Cuisine de France and Supermac’s.
Henderson has introduced the Eurospar format, and was first to introduce self-service checkouts in Northern Ireland. It said that McCammond had played a key part in the group’s growth over the past eight years and the search for his successor was at an advanced stage.
No comments yet