Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe to retire after six years
Mike Coupe is set to retire as chief executive of Sainsbury’s after six years at the helm, the company revealed today.
The CEO will leave the role in May before retail and operations director Simon Roberts takes charge in June.
Mike Coupe said leaving had been a “very difficult decision for me personally”.
Read more: Failed Asda merger ‘the trigger’ for Mike Coupe’s Sainsbury’s departure
“There is never a good time to move on, but as we and the industry continue to evolve, I believe now is the right time for me to hand over to my successor,” he added.
The announcement comes after Sainsbury’s announced a cull of hundreds of management roles yesterday. It will slash the jobs to better integrate Argos, which it bought in 2016.
It also follows a fifth consecutive quarter of flagging sales. Poor Christmas sales of toys and games dragged down Sainsbury’s solid grocery revenue.
Coupe is leaving nine months after his failed merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda. The tie-up would have united two of the Big Four supermarkets and commanded £1 in every £3 spent on groceries.
But the UK’s competition watchdog killed the £7.3bn acquisition on competition grounds last April.
Sainsbury’s share price slipped 1.7 per cent to 208.9p in early trading.
What Mike Coupe said
Mike Coupe said:
There is never a good time to move on, but as we and the industry continue to evolve, I believe now is the right time for me to hand over to my successor. Martin [Scicluna, chairman] and I both believe the business is well set up, with a strong management team and a clear plan for the future. I am delighted that Simon will be the next chief executive and am confident that he is the right choice for our customers, our colleagues and our investors. I will do everything I can to set Simon up for success and will remain committed to Sainsbury’s well beyond my departure.
Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe
Coupe added: “I feel very privileged to have spent almost six years running Sainsbury’s, in a period that has been the most challenging and competitive of my 35 year career in retail.
“Sainsbury’s is a very different business today to the one I took over in 2014. I have focused on setting the business up to deal with the strategic challenges of our industry. I am proud that almost 20 per cent of our total sales now come from our online channels. And that we are becoming one multi brand, multi channel business, able to continue to evolve and adapt with customers’ ever changing needs.
“Adding Argos and Nectar to the business improves our ability to make shopping increasingly convenient for customers and to reward them for their loyalty. We have also been focused on investing in value so that customers feel confident they are getting quality food at great prices when they shop with us.”
Sainsbury’s to slash management roles
Sainsbury’s last night revealed it would slash hundreds of management roles. It is part of a push to better integrate the supermarket with catalogue retailer Argos. Coupe bought the retailer in 2016 in a £1.4bn deal.
The supermarket has slashed its senior leadership team by 20 per cent since March 2019. But now it plans to cut “hundreds of management roles across the business”.
Coupe said: “Truly integrating our business also unlocks efficiencies that we can reinvest in the things that matter most to our customers.”
Chairman Martin Scicluna said Coupe has been an “exceptional” CEO and called the outgoing boss a “bold and ambitious” leader.
“Investing heavily in convenience, online and our digital capability, selling Sainsbury’s pharmacy business and acquiring Argos and Nectar have all been sound strategic moves,” he said. “These set us up well as we come together to create one multi brand, multi channel business for our customers.”
The supermarket has forecast a drop in profit in 2019-20.
Retail chief to replace Mike Coupe
Roberts will now make the step up to the top job now. Market watchers expected Argos boss John Rogers, to take over at Sainsbury’s. But he opted to leave for WPP last October, leading analysts to believe Coupe was in for the long haul.
Roberts joined Sainsbury’s in 2017 after spending 15 years at Marks & Spencer and 13 years at Boots.
The exec recently took on responsibility for Argos as well as his Sainsbury’s retail operations role.
“I am really excited about working together with our 178,000 colleagues to become one multi brand, multi channel business,” Roberts said.
“As we come together, I am feeling hugely energised by what we can do for our customers and our colleagues. I firmly believe in our ability to create value for our shareholders as we continue to evolve and adapt this great business for the future.
“I would also like to thank Mike for his leadership of Sainsbury’s over the past six years and for all his support since I joined the business, I have huge admiration for him. He is an outstanding retail leader and I look forward to working closely with him as we hand over in the coming months.”
Coupe ‘falls on sword’ after Asda debacle
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said Coupe has finally “read the writing on the wall”.
“Questions persisted over his leadership after the CMA blocked the deal,” he added.
“Coupe pulled off the Argos deal with aplomb, but he will be remembered for the Asda disaster. [It was] a hubristic and entirely obvious failure from the get-go. It also left management with their eyes off the ball just as margins really were pressured and as Tesco, Morrisons and the German discounters got their act together.”
Coupe’s departure ‘not a shock’
Analyst Shore Capital said Coupe’s retirement was not a surprise.
“He has rationally gone about his job but also showed immense ambitions,” Shore said. It pointed to him “effectively acquiring and integrating Argos”.
“But [he was responsible for] materially over-extending the business’ capabilities in the eyes of the regulator with the proposed Asda merger,” Shore added.
“We have never faulted Mr Coupe for that merger attempt albeit we remain scathing at the Sainsbury non-executive directors and advisors that did not offer him better counsel for a deal we felt was doomed from the start.”
Coupe came under heavy criticism for the failed Asda merger. Sainsbury’s had to defend its boss when he was caught on camera singing We’re In The Money after the supermarket announced the deal.