Trevor Strain Morrisons

Morrisons has moved to fill the vacancies in its top team following a string of high profile departures this year.

The retailer has appointed Casper Meijer as group trading director and promoted finance director corporate Trevor Strain (pictured) to group finance director, replacing Richard Pennycook,

Strain joined Morrisons in 2009 as commercial and operations finance director before taking up his current role in June 2011. Before that he spent seven years on the finance team at Tesco.

He will be appointed to the main board in June at the end of a managed handover period, after which Pennycook will leave the business. Strain will be responsible for finance, audit and IT.

Pennycook announced his intention to step down in the summer, while in October The Grocer revealed that Morrisons had hired international headhunting firm Spencer Stuart to lead the search for a replacement.

“After a thorough selection process I am delighted that Trevor Strain will be Morrisons new group finance director,” said chairman Sir Ian Gibson. “He has a strong track record of financial leadership and his comprehensive understanding of our business will ensure continuity.”

New group trading director Meijer is currently executive vice president for merchandising at Dutch supermarket group Albert Heijn. He will join by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Martyn Jones will continue as interim group commercial director until Meijer has completed his induction into the business to ensure a managed handover of responsibilities. Jones has been in the role since last month after group commercial director Richard Hodgson was ousted.

At Albert Heijn, Meijer was responsible for all of the retailer’s commercial ranging including supermarkets, convenience stores, pick-up-points and home delivery.

“His broad retail experience, and in particular his record and passion for offering customers fresh food at affordable prices is a great fit with Morrisons,” said Morrisons CEO Dalton Philips.

“He is well placed to drive our trading strategy as we roll out our fresh format stores and expand into new channels including convenience.”

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