Asda has undergone a major restructure, resulting in the appointment of a long-awaited new non-food director and the axing of its regional MD posts.

Peter Pritchard, the former store development director, has been promoted to the executive board and will head up its non-food business. He replaces Tony Page who left to join Woolworths earlier this year (The Grocer, 20 May, p19).

Pritchard, who has played a key role in the launch of Asda's George standalone stores and Living and Essentials formats, has spent ten years at the retailer. He was made a director seven years ago, aged 29.

As part of the restructure, Andy Adcock, business unit director for chilled meat, has been promoted to brand director.

The overhaul of Asda's retail team will create two new positions of operations directors for the north and the south, replacing the supermarket's three regional managing directors. Rob Swyer, Sally Hopson and Glenn Bowles, who held these roles, will all take up new positions within the restructured team.

Swyer will take over Pritchard's role as retail development director, while Hopson will fill a newly created role, working alongside George Global managing director Angela Spindler as markets director.

Bowles will become operations director for the north while central operations director Stuart Machin will become operations director for the south.

To support them, 27 regional operations director posts have been created to replace 'coach' roles within the business. However, with the new job titles comes more accountability.

Retail director Andy Clarke said: "We're moving to a new retail operations structure, with the appointment of two operations directors. This will bring clarity to the retail team, with clearer accountability, and strong leadership."