Metcash poaches top executive talent from retail rivals

Wholesaler Metcash has bolstered its management ranks by cherry-picking execs from rivals Woolworths and Aldi.

A shopper pushes a cart at an IGA supermarket in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007. Metcash Ltd. said first-half p...

Grocery wholesaler Metcash has bolstered its management ranks by cherry-picking executives from rivals Woolworths and Aldi, as well as snatching the former CFO of furniture group Fantastic Holdings.

Metcash, which supplies more than 2000 independent supermarkets and is in the midst of a bruising war in the $90 billion grocery sector, has also hired former Big W senior manager Algy Pereira, who quit the discount store to take a job at Dick Smith only a few weeks before the consumer electronics group collapsed.

When Mr Pereira was lured from the Woolies-owned Big W, where he was head of trade and family entertainment, it was believed he was being anointed as a possible successor to Dick Smith boss Nick Abboud whose hold on the CEO role was looking shaky after profit downgrades. He did not even get the chance to fit out his new office with Dick Smith falling into receivership a month later.

Mr Pereira, who will be general manager for merchandise, wholesale, at Metcash’s supermarket arm, will be joined at the group by George Saoud, the former CFO of Fantastic who was instrumental in helping turn around the fortunes of the owner of the Fantastic Furniture, Plush and Le Cornu furniture chains.

Mr Saoud departed Fantastic last month, and was followed out the door by the CEO Stephen Heath. Mr Saoud will be CFO for Metcash’s supermarket division which drives two-thirds of the wholesaler’s group earnings.

Mel Patel, a former executive at German discount supermarket Aldi, has been poached by Metcash to look after its private label supermarket offering.

As part of its review and restructure of its core food and grocery arm, which has suffered a slump in profitability thanks to the price war between Woolies, Coles and Aldi, Metcash has also rejigged its merchandise team at the supermarkets business to improve its relationship with suppliers and source better value groceries.

Metcash has combined its food and non-food arms to be led by one national general manager, Andrew Clark, with the former boss of non-food merchandise Ian Roberts leaving the company. Metcash has grabbed Woolworths’ buyer and category manager Jennifer Rogers to be a new national merchandise manager at its supermarkets business.