Woolies appoints new finance chief

RETAIL group Woolworths has filled the gap in its boardroom with the appointment of former MEPC finance chief Stephen East. The new chief accountant takes up the £300,000 post next month, replacing Chris Rogers who left for the same role at Whitbread.

'We're very pleased to have him on board,' said Woolworths chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones. 'He's widely experienced and he'll do a very good job for us.'

Prior to working at property company MEPC, East, 47, ran his own consultancy and has held senior positions with building materials group Redland. He was recently appointed a non-executive director of Regus, the serviced offices company.

Bish-Jones is further bolstering the main board with two internal promotions - stepping up are Lloyd Wigglesworth, who heads the firm's successful CD and DVD distribution arm, Entertainment UK, and retail director Steve Lewis. Further non-executive directors will be appointed at some point to balance the board, Bish-Jones added.

Earlier this week, Woolworths reported a further decline in like-for-like sales although claimed it was holding its own in the fiercely competitive High Street. Sales of entertainment products were particularly poor, hit by a lack of blockbuster releases, pushing group like-for-like sales down by 4.4% over the first 18 weeks of the year. That prompted some analysts to reduce their profit forecasts and has sparked fresh concern for the group's prospects in the wake of terminated takeover talks with Apax partners in April.

The group also ruled out the return of cash to shareholders, although it stressed that it would continue with a 'progressive' dividend policy.

Woolworths is not the only High Street retailer under pressure. Figures from the British Retail Consortium overnight reveal that retail sales in May were down 2.4% on a year ago, despite a flood of discounting to attract shoppers. But Woolies is losing out to the likes of Tesco, which is forging ahead with its non-food business and competing hard in sales of music, videos, books and games.

Woolworths blamed a comparatively poor release schedule for sales of these entertainment products and said that it was taking action to limit the damage to margins. The space allocated to higher-margin goods has been increased within its stores and a comprehensive refurbishment programme of its stores continues apace.