Morrisons has appointed Steve Mosey as its new category director, responsible for beer, wines and spirits; tobacco and lottery.

Mosey has worked for Morrisons since June 2009 and previously headed up the retailer's category development team.

In his new position, he will drive awareness of Morrisons' in-store food matching facilities for wine and beer through its Market Street offer, while also building on the breadth of the range.

He will report to Nick Collard, commercial director for ambient & frozen and replaces Simon Harrison, who has moved to a strategy role.

In his previous role, Mosey was responsible for ensuring robust trading strategies were in place across all business units and delivering improved use of space as part of Morrisons' Store of the Future programme.

Prior to joining Morrisons, he was international cider development manager at Heineken International and previously held various roles at brewer Scottish & Newcastle.

"Morrisons' BWS offering has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, so this is a very exciting time to be joining the team," said Mosey. "My immediate priority is to deliver our Christmas plans and then implement our 2012 activity."

Morrisons has a policy of sourcing regional ales ­locally and plans to ramp up its offering later this year by stocking an extra 10 ales ahead of Christmas, which will bring the total to more than 160 across its stores.