Where are they now? Peter Burdon, former CEO, Thorntons

Name: Peter Burdon
Was: CEO of Thorntons
Now: Chief operating officer of Nord Anglia

Career background: After beginning his career in engineering with Esso, Burdon’s first exposure to grocery was working at management consultancy McKinsey & Company on projects for the likes of Golden Wonder. From there, Burdon joined Boots, where he became trading director responsible for its smaller categories. He left in 2000 to become CEO of Thorntons, where he stayed for six years.

What is he doing now? Based in Hong Kong, he is COO at Nord Anglia Education, which runs international schools and provides learning services such as school inspections and teacher training.

How does international education and UK grocery compare? “There are similarities. In education, I use a lot of what I learned in grocery about marketing and property - finding a property of the right size on the right site is very important in both sectors. But in contrast to grocery in the UK, international education is a very fast-growing sector. It’s a nice position to be in.”

Why did you leave Thorntons? “I fell out with the chairman. We had different visions of the extent that we should be selling products outside our own network of stores. It saddens me to see Thorntons being sold in run-down forecourts.”

How do you think Thorntons can get back on track? “The stores need more innovative products. I think that ultimately what is needed is a fundamental restructuring of the manufacturing. The current facilities are not set up to do upmarket, Hotel Chocolat-style products but neither do they do mass-market products well enough.”

As a former trading director at Boots, what did you make of the recent merger with Walgreens? “They are very different businesses. Walgreens is nothing like as premium as Boots. It is difficult to see what synergies they’ll have.”

Where are you now? Are you searching for a former colleague who you’d love to get in contact with again, or would you like to appear in this column? Contact Beth Phillips on beth.phillips@thegrocer.co.uk or 01293 610227.