Colin Holmes has become commercial director for fresh food at Tesco on his return from sabbatical.
After a string of departures from the supermarket's senior management team, including Stuart Machin, Colin Smith, Scott Wheway and Ken McMeikan, the move to grant Holmes a sabbatical was seen as an attempt to stop a 'brain drain'.
Holmes, who has worked at Tesco for more than 20 years and has been touted as a potential successor to Sir Terry Leahy, left his position as chief executive of Tesco's convenience business in April last year to spend more time with his family and do charity work.
He had also been chief executive of T&S Stores, the convenience store chain that Tesco took over in 2003, and operations director for Tesco superstores, central, and held a variety of other senior finance and operational roles.
He came back to Tesco in January and has spent the start of the year getting back up to speed. He takes over as commercial director of fresh foods from Steve Morrells, who has moved to take on responsibility for the integration of garden centre chain Dobbies.
Morrells joined Tesco in 1992 from Sainsbury's and held a number of buying roles before being promoted to category director for meat, poultry and fish in 1999. He then moved to produce and spent 18 months improving the supply chain. He became CEO of T&S in 2003 and oversaw the transition to Tesco Express, before becoming commercial director for fresh foods in 2005.
"Steve's appointment at Dobbies shows the level of importance Tesco is putting on this business," said a spokeswoman for Tesco.
Tesco bought the 21-store garden centre chain last June and wants to extend it across the UK to create an outlet for 'green' products, such as energy-saving light bulbs and solar panels.
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