Managing director David Quilty is leaving independent grocer Rusts at the end of this month to become retail operations director of Neighbours Convenience Stores in Shropshire.
Quilty began work in the food industry at Liverpool-based wholesaler Morrison Jones in 1972. He moved to Booker, becoming a national account manager in the early 1980s. After spells at Dillons newsagents and CTN chain Paperchain, he moved to CJ Lang in 1996 to become sales director for Spar Scotland. In 1997 he became retail director of Photoprocessing.
He joined Rusts as managing director in 1998 and his replacement there will be the administrative director John Cox.
Quilty said: "I developed a professional relationship with Neighbours' managing director Howard Jones 12 months ago and was persuaded to help him grow the business.
"We want to expand as rapidly as we can within a 50-mile radius of Shropshire. We anticipate some general growth through store development and refitting, but the main growth will come through acquisition. We have an aggressive four-year plan."
Neighbours has 14 stores with a combined annual turnover of £13m.


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