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* Paula Nickolds will join Sainsbury's in June
* Will succeed Mike Luck
* Nickolds left John Lewis last year
(Adds detail)
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - British supermarket group
Sainsbury's has recruited Paula Nickolds, the former
boss of the John Lewis department store chain, to lead its near
8 billion pound ($11 billion) general merchandise and clothing
business.
Sainsbury's said on Thursday that Nickolds would join as
general merchandise and clothing commercial director next month,
succeeding Mike Luck, who is leaving the group after 18 years.
Nickolds, who will be responsible for general merchandise in
Sainsbury's stores as well as the Argos, Habitat and Tu clothing
businesses, will also take a seat on Sainsbury's operating
board, reporting to CEO Simon Roberts.
Together those operations represent about a quarter of
Sainsbury's total group sales of 32.3 billion pounds in its
2020-21 year.
Tu is Britain's fifth largest clothing business on a sales
value basis, according to market researcher Kantar.
Nickolds worked for John Lewis for 25 years, the latter
three as managing director. She left in January last year after
the department store chain endured a poor Christmas.
Last week Sainsbury's forecast a big rebound in underlying
profit this year after a 39% fall in 2020-21 as strong food
sales during the pandemic were outweighed by extra costs and a
decision to forgo business rates relief.
($1 = 0.7188 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Michael Holden and Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
