John Lewis Partnership appoints James Bailey to head up Waitrose
The John Lewis Partnership has appointed James Bailey as its new executive director for Waitrose.
Previously grocery buying director at Sainsbury’s, he has taken up his new position today.
Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “I am thrilled that James is joining us. He has had an exceptional 18 years at Sainsbury’s across finance, strategy, convenience and commercial and then latterly as buying director for grocery with accountability for more than half the company’s turnover and three times the size of Waitrose. His varied background outside of retail also makes him a great cultural fit for the partnership and I am looking forward to working with him.”
The partnership is currently recruiting for the same role at the John Lewis department store chain. The introduction of the new roles follows last year’s restructuring of the partnership’s management which has resulted in John Lewis and Waitrose being run as a single business.
The two new executive directors will become members of the partnership’s seven-person executive team under the leadership of White.
In today’s statement White said: “These new executive director roles at Waitrose and John Lewis will allow us to get the best of both worlds out of our new management structure. We’ll have all the benefits of bringing together activities that are best organised pan-partnership and reducing duplication while still recognising that there are important differences in the way you run a department store and a supermarket.”
