Johnathan Sutton is leaving his position as category technical manager for Tesco’s Asian Group Food Sourcing hub in Thailand to join upmarket UK retail chain Marks & Spencer (M&S).
Sutton, who has spent the last 14 years with Tesco, will leave the retailer at the end of October to lead Marks & Spencer’s technical produce team based in London. He will relocate to the UK from Thailand, where he’s been based with Tesco for the past four years.
Sutton joined Tesco in May 1998 as vegetable technical manager, before becoming category manager for UK vegetables in 2002. He moved into the group’s Produce Group Sourcing division as category technical manager in 2005 before relocating to Thailand in 2007, initially to support the retailer’s Thai and Malaysian businesses and later rejoining Produce Group Sourcing in 2009. In July last year, he became the category technical manager for Tesco’s Group Food Sourcing Asian hub
“Johnathan has made a significant contribution to the development of produce sources and service providers in Asia and more recently in the development of the technical team there,” said Lisa Hoyle, head of technical for Tesco Group Food Sourcing. “He’s been a highly valued member of the team and has created a strong network across the business that helped him to drive the Group Food Sourcing technical agenda in Asia.”
When he takes up his new role heading up M&S’s technical team in November, Sutton will work with the UK retailer’s global supply base covering fresh produce, plants and flowers, and prepared produce.
“My role will focus on driving the M&S quality plans and providing leadership and management for the technical team that’s already in place at M&S,” he told Fruitnet.com.
M&S is renowned for its focus on the high-end market retailing luxury foods, and it has developed long-term relationships with suppliers centred on quality.
Developing those kinds of relationships is more difficult in Asia’s mainstream food retail environment, which remains highly price-focused and less structured than the UK market.
“M&S has already got suppliers from Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, but my network in Asia will also allow the group to look more closely at production in this region, where standards have seen massive improvement in recent years,” Sutton said.
Tesco is likely to move swiftly to appoint a replacement for Sutton, as the group is expanding its Group Food Sourcing team in Asia, where it will have 10 key technical personnel in the near future. The division’s top management, including Lisa Hoyle and Darren Clough, are expected to be at the Asiafruit Congress and ASIA FRUIT LOGISTICA on 7-9 September, where Jean-Paul Khaou, category manager for Tesco Group Food Sourcing Asia, will be speaking on a special Asian retail panel.
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