co op

The Co-operative Group has made a number of appointments on its food executive team as it continues to rebuild the society.

It has appointed Jane McCall to the new role of transformation & change director. McCall joins from her consultancy, JMC. She has also worked for Bupa and Tesco.

Co-op retail CEO Steve Murrells told The Grocer McCall’s role was a new one for the society. “She’s someone we brought in to help us on a consultancy basis and she’s brought a whole new wealth of business planning,” he said. “She’ll control our customer relations call centre and our comms programme.”

Transformation & service delivery director Cheryl Marshall is moving into the new role of chief information officer for the food business. She has worked at the society since 1998, holding a number of roles including director of Somerfield integration and supply chain controller.

Murrells said Marshall “knows all the plugs that need to be fitted into this unique business.”

Customer director Andrew Mann, who joined The Co-op from Sainsbury’s in January 2013, meanwhile, is moving to the new group role of customer data experience director. The society said Mann would remain in his current role until a successor was appointed, which Murrells said would be “shortly.”

“I always knew it would take two or three phases to get the team absolutely firing,” Murrells said. “We’re not too far off now in terms of thinking and speed.We’ve become a very capable team. In fact, we are outnumbered females to males, which is also important.”

Co-op Group CEO Richard Pennycook added: “We had a period when all the fires were blazing when it wasn’t easy, or fair, to recruit, but we took some people on as interims and they can now commit to our future.”