Senior promotions revealed at Morrisons

Bradford-headquartered Morrisons has today announced the promotion of Trevor Strain to chief operating officer, and Michael Gleeson to chief financial officer.

Strain is currently group chief finance and commercial officer, and has been an executive director of Morrisons and chief financial officer since 2013.

In his new role, he will continue to report into chief executive, David Potts. His responsibilities will include commercial, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, operations development, online and wholesale.

Gleeson, a qualified chartered accountant, joined Morrisons in 2014 and is currently trading director responsible for ambient grocery, frozen, dairy, fuel and services.

He has been trading director since January 2017, prior to which he was group financial controller and supermarkets finance director.

Before joining Morrisons, Gleeson was at Tesco for 15 years in various senior finance roles.

He will be appointed as an executive director of Morrisons and chief financial officer, reporting into Potts, effective on the first day of the 2020/21 financial year (3 February 2020), until which time he will be group finance director reporting into Strain.

Gleeson’s annual salary will be £490,000 and his full remuneration details will be disclosed in due course.

Potts said: “These two appointments are a result of strong management development plans at Morrisons and I am delighted we are promoting two highly capable colleagues from within the team. I look forward to continuing to work closely with both of them.  

“Trevor is a proven and outstanding business leader who has played a pivotal role in the ongoing Morrisons turnaround.

“Michael has extensive financial, commercial and retail experience, together with a first-class track record, and his appointment will further strengthen the executive team. Together, and as part of the wider Morrisons team, we will continue to build a broader, stronger Morrisons.”

In mid-September the listed Big Four supermarket published its interim results for the six month period ended 4 August 2019. Its pre-tax profit rose 48.5%, from £136m in the same period last year to £202m in the current period.

Total revenue rose just 0.4%, from £8.80bn to £8.83bn, while group like-for-like (LFL) sales excluding-fuel and VAT was up 0.2% (2018/19: 4.9%).

In March of this year, Morrisons reported its third consecutive year of growth.

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