Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis is to step down next year, the supermarket giant has announced.
Chairman John Allan said he had accepted the decision “with regret” after Mr Lewis decided he wanted to leave in the summer of 2020.
The chief executive said his decision was a “personal one” and that it was “the right time to pass the baton” having completed a turnaround of Britain’s biggest supermarket.
Mr Lewis joined Tesco in 2014 as it suffered sliding sales and a series of profit warnings – and just weeks into the job had to deal with the fall-out as the company disclosed a big accounting black hole.
Ken Murphy, chief commercial officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance – the owner of high street retailer Boots – will take over next year.
The announcement of Mr Lewis’s departure came as Tesco reported a 6.7% rise in pre-tax profits to £494m for the six months to 24 August.
But like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland grew by just 0.1% over a “subdued” period which suffered by comparison last year when demand was boosted by hot weather and the World Cup as well as a royal wedding.
Mr Lewis said it had been a “very good start to the year” despite “challenging external conditions”.
Tesco’s results came as latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) highlighted the pressure on profit margins in the sector as falling consumer demand pushes down prices.
The BRC found that shop prices fell by 0.6% in September and that while food prices were still going up, they recorded growth of just 1.1%, the lowest rate for a year and a half.
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