Waitrose has appointed a man with 28 years experience at John Lewis as its supply chain director.

David Jones, who is currently divisional registrar for John Lewis, will replace former director Mark Williamson on 31 August.

Williamson moved across to the role of commercial director at Waitrose following the appointment of Richard Hodgson as Morrisons group commercial director. Hodgson is still currently working at Waitrose until an agreement is made on his starting date.

Jones joined the John Lewis Partnership in 1982 and held several branch manager roles in Waitrose before moving to buying in 1994. He became head of buying services in 2002 before moving to the corporate office as deputy partners' counsellor in 2005.

He returned to Waitrose in 2007 as a director of buying for 18 months before his move to divisional registrar for John Lewis in 2009. In this role he represented the co-owners of the business to ensure they were involved and informed on all issues relating to the business.

"David's deep understanding of our business and wide experience at senior level make him ideally suited to this role," said Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose.

"I am delighted that, once again, we have been able to draw on our own talent pool to fill this important position."

Until recently, Jones was also an elected member of the Partnership Board.

Waitrose is upping its game in the convenience store market with the appointment of three property agents to source sites. Hundreds of potential store sites are currently being considered as it drives to hit its target of 300 c-stores in the next 10 years.

Jones fills one of the last senior vacancies created by the recent recruitment merry-go-round set in motion by Marc Bolland and Andy Bond. This leaves the two senior jobs at Asda to be filled chief operating officer to replace Andy Clarke and trading director to replace Darren Blackhurst.