Bolland swaps Morrisons for Marks & Spencer

MORRISONS chief executive Marc Bolland is moving to take the top role at high street giant Marks & Spencer.

The Dutchman has headed the Bradford-based supermarket chain for the last three years after joining from brewer Heineken.

The 50-year-old will take up his new role in the New Year where he will work with chairman Sir Stuart Rose who will step back to a part-time role until his departure in July 2011.

M&S has been looking for a chief executive after Sir Stuart controversially held the dual roles of chairman and chief executive.

Sir Stuart said, “I am delighted that Marc is to be M&S’ next chief executive. 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.”

Mr Bolland 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 Stuart and the M&S team.”

Morrisons said it wanted to express its appreciation for the contribution Mr Bolland has made to the development and success of 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.”

The supermarket said it had commenced a process to review both internal and external candidates for a new chief executive.  

Mr Bolland joined Morrisons in September 2006 succeeding Bob Stott as chief executive and worked alongside retail legend Sir Ken Morrison until his retirement the following year.

He was chief operating officer and executive board member at Heineken in the Netherlands before that and is currently a non-executive director of Manpower Inc in the USA.