Britain's Sainsbury's shakes up leadership team

LONDON (Reuters) -Sainsbury's Chief Executive Officer Simon Roberts has reshuffled the leadership team of Britain's second-largest supermarket group after a key lieutenant quit to become the boss of homeware retailer Dunelm.

Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury's chief retail and technology officer, resigned last month and will become Dunelm's CEO in October. She had been seen by some analysts as a possible successor to Roberts, Sainsbury's CEO since 2020.

Sainsbury's, which with a UK grocery market share of 15% trails only Tesco, said on Tuesday that Tracey Clements will join the operating board next month with the newly created role of chief retail, logistics and supply officer. She previously worked for Tesco, drugstore chain Boots and oil major BP.

In other changes, Chief Marketing, Data and Sustainability officer Mark Given will take on responsibility for technology by becoming chief technology, marketing and data officer.

Chief Commercial Officer Rhian Bartlett will see her role expanded to take on sustainability, becoming chief commercial and sustainability officer with a remit to embed sustainability "at the heart of commercial decision making".

Last month, Sainsbury's reported better-than-expected first quarter sales, benefiting from warm weather and a disruption at rival Marks & Spencer. Its shares are up 8% so far this year.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)