Norman eyes top job at Sainsbury

ARCHIE Norman, Tory MP and former Asda chairman, has signalled his interest in becoming chairman of Sainsbury.

In the past fortnight, a campaign has been gathering pace among senior City figures to bring in Norman after the announcement and rapid withdrawal of Sir Ian Prosser as chairman-elect in the face of an investor revolt.

He won respect for turning round Asda from near-ruin in the early Nineties into a multi-billion pound supermarket operation that was snapped-up by US retail giant Wal-Mart less than a decade later. Now he is believed to be keen for an approach for the Sainsbury job.

A supporter said: 'Archie has always had one eye on the Sainsbury's chair. He now sees it is the right moment to quit his political career and this is the post that would get him back into business full time.'

Norman, who also knows and gets on well with major shareholder Sir David Sainsbury, is believed already to have met and discussed the possible move with Justin King, who takes over as chief executive at Sainsbury at the end of the next month. The pair were colleagues at Asda.

However, Norman's friends say he is not interested in working with Sir Peter Davis, the present chairman. Under the current strategy, Sainsbury has been searching for a deputy who would serve under Davis and take over in a year.

After the Prosser fiasco, Sainsbury's nomination committee, led by Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd's of London, has yet to meet to discuss the renewed search.

It emerged last week that he favoured Sir Peter Gershon, the head of the Government's efficiency review and former chief operating officer of BAE Systems. However, Norman's supporters claim their man is far more suitable for the role.

One supporter said: 'Archie is a respected retailer and the one person who could go into Sainsbury's and convince shareholders to give him three to five years to sort things out.

'I doubt you'd have got that leeway with any of the other names that have been mentioned.'

Norman would not rule out his interest last night while Sainsbury refused to talk about potential appointments ahead of its nominations committee meeting.