Tesco senior executive quits amid management shake-up

Tesco's senior management team has been shaken up again after the departure of another senior executive ahead of this week’s eagerly anticipated annual meeting.

Neela Mukherjee, UK general merchandise director, left the company earlier this month, it emerged on Tuesday, joining a series of top executives who have left the grocery retailer since the start of the year. She resigned after an internal reshuffle in which Robin Terrell, group multichannel director, was handed control of the general merchandise and grocery home shopping categories, Sky News reported.

During the shake-up, Jill Easterbrook – the boss of Tesco’s health and wellbeing businesses – became chief customer officer, while Matt Atkinson – the supermarket’s chief marketing officer – was promoted to chief creative officer.

“Tesco is not doing well in general merchandise and the company is struggling, so Ms Mukherjee’s departure is not surprising,” one City analyst told The Telegraph.

“But the bigger question is, is the ship sinking or not? We have continually seen senior managers leaving, changing, or facing pressure.

“The company is not in good stead right now, and it’s certainly not helping itself with the decisions that it is making.”

Philip Clarke, Tesco’s chief executive, has overseen three years of falling sales in the UK since taking over from Sir Terry Leahy in 2011. The supermarket reported a 3.7pc revenue slide earlier this month – its worst quarterly figures for 40 years.

On Monday, Fitch cut Tesco’s credit rating from BBB+ to BBB, citing increasing competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl. It followed a downgrade from Moody’s, which last week slashed the retailer’s credit rating to Baa2 from Baa1 – two notches above junk status – after a 6pc drop in the company’s 2013-14 trading profit and weak first quarter sales this year.

“Neela has decided to pursue her career outside of Tesco,” a spokesman for Tesco said. “She made a significant contribution in her 12 years at Tesco, both internationally and here in the UK.”

Shares in Tesco closed at 289.35 on Tuesday, down 0.91pc.