Charles Kay has replaced Richard Lancaster as MD at Netto, The Grocer can reveal.
The former European trading director for AMS Sourcing, an international buying group with 11 members including Morrisons and Netto’s parent company Dansk, has been charged with accelerating the retailer’s sales growth and emulating the success of fellow discounter Aldi.
The latest TNS Worldpanel figures show Netto’s sales grew 6.5% in the 12 weeks to 25 January, less than grocery price inflation of 8.4%.
Sales at Aldi and Lidl grew 24.1% and 11% respectively in the same period.
“We are still growing, although we could be growing quicker than we are,” said Kay, adding that he was looking at all aspects of the business and wanted to open more stores outside Netto’s stronghold in the north of England.
“I want to bring Netto more on to the map in the UK,” he said. “We have been here for many years and are well known in certain areas of the UK - in other areas we are not.
“It will be part of my job to make sure Netto becomes better known and to make it a better business. There are a lot of areas where we are not big enough, although we will not expand without proper costings.”
Many parts of the business had scope for improvement, including non-food and fresh, he said. There were also plans to renovate some older stores.
One of Netto’s biggest problems was that it was not a national player, said Greg Lawless, an analyst at Blue Oar. “The discounters all started at roughly the same time but Netto has not kept pace with store development,” he said. “Aldi has left it for dust. Aldi and Lidl have also moved their range more upmarket, which Netto has not.”
Lancaster left in November to become a senior trading director at Morrisons. William Smith, who was acting MD following his departure, has now resumed his previous role of property director.
The former European trading director for AMS Sourcing, an international buying group with 11 members including Morrisons and Netto’s parent company Dansk, has been charged with accelerating the retailer’s sales growth and emulating the success of fellow discounter Aldi.
The latest TNS Worldpanel figures show Netto’s sales grew 6.5% in the 12 weeks to 25 January, less than grocery price inflation of 8.4%.
Sales at Aldi and Lidl grew 24.1% and 11% respectively in the same period.
“We are still growing, although we could be growing quicker than we are,” said Kay, adding that he was looking at all aspects of the business and wanted to open more stores outside Netto’s stronghold in the north of England.
“I want to bring Netto more on to the map in the UK,” he said. “We have been here for many years and are well known in certain areas of the UK - in other areas we are not.
“It will be part of my job to make sure Netto becomes better known and to make it a better business. There are a lot of areas where we are not big enough, although we will not expand without proper costings.”
Many parts of the business had scope for improvement, including non-food and fresh, he said. There were also plans to renovate some older stores.
One of Netto’s biggest problems was that it was not a national player, said Greg Lawless, an analyst at Blue Oar. “The discounters all started at roughly the same time but Netto has not kept pace with store development,” he said. “Aldi has left it for dust. Aldi and Lidl have also moved their range more upmarket, which Netto has not.”
Lancaster left in November to become a senior trading director at Morrisons. William Smith, who was acting MD following his departure, has now resumed his previous role of property director.
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