New CEO for Sainsbury’s

Mike Coupe is to retire from his role as chief executive at Sainsbury’s from 1 June. He will be replaced by retail and operations director Simon Roberts.

Coupe will have spent six years as chief executive of Sainsbury’s by May 2020. He will remain a director until 2 July , at which point he will retire from the business entirely.

Chairman Martin Scicluna said that Coupe was “an exceptional chief executive”.

“Investing heavily in convenience, online and our digital capability, selling Sainsbury’s pharmacy business and acquiring Argos and Nectar have all been sound strategic moves,” he said.

“[Roberts] has been extremely effective during his three years at Sainsbury’s, leading our store teams through great change in that time.”

Coupe said: “Sainsbury’s is a very different business today to the one I took over in 2014. I have focused on setting the business up to deal with the strategic challenges of our industry.

“I am proud that almost 20% of our total sales now come from our online channels and that we are becoming one multi brand, multi channel business, able to continue to evolve and adapt with customers’ ever changing needs.”