The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Bish-Jones leaves Woolies

18.06.08 Anna Richardson

Trevor Bish-Jones is standing down as chief executive of Woolworths Group. The news came as the company announced a decrease in group sales of 1.9% compared with last year for the 19 weeks to 14th June and the disposal of four of its London store leases to Waitrose.

Bish-Jones, who has been at Woolworths for six years, has agreed to continue his post for the next three months in order to enable a search for his successor. Woolworths chairman, Richard North, said that Bish-Jones had made "a very significant contribution to the group" but that "this is an appropriate time to seek new leadership for the business".

Woolworths also announced that it would dispose of the leases on four London stores to Waitrose for £25.5m. The transaction is expected to complete around 31st July, with the proceeds from the disposal used to reduce group borrowings and finance ongoing investment in the business.

In the company's interim management statement, North announced that like-for-like sales within Woolworths Retail were "broadly in line with our internal expectations" at a decrease of 2.2% in the 19 weeks to 14th June, compared to the same period last year.

He added that that third party sales in wholesalers Entertainment UK and Bertrams were down 0.6% compared with last year, also in line with expectations, while 2entertain, the group's joint venture with BBC Worldwide, had a strong start to the year with sales up 29.8%, benefiting from continued good performance from Planet Earth in the US and other international markets.

Woolworths said it remained "cautious" about the consumer economy, as it believed "the spending power of many consumers will be reduced by a number of factors including rising energy and food prices".

Prospects for the entertainment and wholesale business were less driven by consumer expenditure and more influenced by the product release cycle.

Retail Anna Richardson woolworths Home Trevor Bish-Jones

Comments on this article