Morrisons boss Bolland to replace Stuart Rose at M&S helm

Rose will remain as part-time chairman and said he was delighted that Bolland had been chosen as his successor.

“He brings a wealth of consumer marketing experience and has made a great success of his time at Morrisons. We very much look forward to welcoming him and working together,” he said.

Bolland has been at Morrisons since 2006 after joining from Heineken where he was chief operating officer.

He said: “M&S is one of the world’s great brands and I am very pleased to be given the opportunity to lead the company forward at this exciting stage. I am greatly looking forward to working closely with the Stuart and the M&S team.”

Bolland has been somewhat of a packaging champion in his time at Morrisons. Earlier this year he praised packaging’s role in the supply chain and would not simply remove packaging if doing so wasn’t justified.

“Peppers don’t need packaging, but shrink-wrapping a cucumber increases its shelf-life. We are not going to use packaging where it’s not helpful, but a number of products will lose it,” he said.

Rose will continue as part-time chairman to ensure a smooth succession, and is set to leave the company by July 2011.

Morrisons has started to review candidates to succeed Bolland and the retailer’s board thanked him for his contribution to the company over the last three years.

Sir Ian Gibson, chairman of Morrisons, said: “The Morrisons Group has a strong and capable senior management team who will continue to deliver the business strategy which has enabled Morrisons to achieve market leading growth this year whilst the Board identifies a suitable successor. I would like to thank Marc for his contribution over the last three years”

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