Morrisons restructures marketing department after poor Christmas

By Matthew Chapman, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Monday, 07 January 2013 09:41AM

Morrisons has appointed Nick Collard to the newly created group marketing and customer director position following the departure of commercial director Richard Hodgson.

Collard will have ultimate responsibility for marketing, own brand ranges, insight, loyalty, customer relationship management and format. He will sit on the management board and report into Dalton Philips, chief executive.

The supermarket parted ways with Hodgson in November over concerns its fresh food proposition was being insufficiently communicated and has now split Hodgson’s responsibilities into two separate roles.

Today Morrisons revealed a 2.5% decline in like-for-like sales for the six weeks to 30 December.

Collard has been promoted to the new role from his current position as marketing and operations director, which he was promoted to in April 2012 having previously been the commercial director for ambient and frozen.

Hodgson’s commercial responsibilities have been handed to Casper Meijer, who has taken on the position of group trading director after being poached from Dutch retailer Ahold.

Belinda Youngs, the supermarket’s own-brand director, has been promoted to the role of corporate brand marketing director and will report into Collard.

Morrisons marketing director Rebecca Singleton, who primarily focuses on advertising and in-store marketing, will report into Youngs.

Philips said: "Nick’s doing a great job in taking our marketing forward and now has the opportunity to lead one team integrating our own brand and customer engagement. 

"The recent announcement of our partnership with Ant and Dec is a great sign of how Nick’s team can showcase the talent of Morrisons colleagues and the value they offer our customers."

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This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk