// Tesco is on the hunt to find a successor for long-serving chairman John Allan
// External headhunters will aid the recruitment process as Allan prepares to step down in 2024
Tesco is putting plans in place to begin its search to find a successor for long-serving chairman John Allan as he prepares to step down in 2024.
The UK’s largest supermarket is in the process of appointing an external headhunter to assist in the recruitment process, which is expected to begin in earnest early next year.
According to Sky News, the search for Allan’s successor will be led internally by Byron Grote – former BP finance boss and non-executive director at Tesco.
Under UK corporate governance rules, Allan – who was appointed to the Tesco board in 2015 – will not be eligible to serve as an independent chairman from 2024, having “served on the board for more than nine years”.
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Allan initially took up the chairman position shortly after Tesco was accused of inflating its profits by £250m following the discovery of an accounting scandal in December 2014.
Since then, he has helped to stabilise and grow the market leading retailer, which now accounts for more than a quarter of all supermarket sales in the UK (26.9%).
Tesco has seen profits slip over the past year in the wake of Covid and as consumers cut back in the face of soaring inflation during the cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Allan recently said that Tesco had “a moral responsibility” to look after people who are being impacted by rising interest rates, adding that Labour was the only political party to offer a credible economic growth plan for the UK.
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