Sainsbury’s influential IT director Rob Fraser is to leave the supermarket chain next year.
Fraser, who has led the retailer’s IT function since 2009, has decided to leave the role in April at the end of Sainsbury’s current financial year.
Fraser joined Sainsbury’s operating board in July 2009, having previously been vice-president, retail, consumer & transport at IT services company CSC. Before that, he spent 10 years at Boots where he held a number of IT roles, including group IT director. He has also worked for Rank Xerox and M&S. He is currently a member of GS1 UK’s supervisory board.
Fraser has led a number of key IT projects for Sainsbury’s, including its voucher-at-till scheme Brand Match, launched in August 2011, which has been widely recognised as a major factor in Sainsbury’s continued outperformance of the grocery market and 35 consecutive quarters of like-for-like growth. Last month, Sainsbury’s said Brand Match - which gives shoppers an instant voucher if they spend more than £20 and the branded items in their basket were collectively cheaper at Tesco or Asda - “continues to be appreciated by customers, with ‘cheaper than’ coupons issued over 50% of the time during the half”.
More recently, he has been working on the relaunch of Sainsbury’s website, which is currently being rolled out in stages across the UK. Last month, Sainsbury’s said its online sales grew at more than 15% in the 28 weeks to 28 September.
A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “Since he joined Sainsbury’s in 2009, Rob has been a passionate champion of delivering great IT service and driven forward our agenda including a number of major IT projects such as Brand Match and our new website for groceries online.”
The retailer is now looking for his replacement.
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