By Anthony O. Goriainoff


Tesco said Saturday that Gerry Murphy has been appointed chairman and will join the board on Sept. 1, replacing John Allan who stepped down in June following claims that he acted inappropriately toward several women.

The U.K. number one grocer by market share said that interim chairman Byron Grote will step down and revert back to his previous position as senior independent director.

Murphy is currently chairman of Tate & Lyle, a position he will step down from. He is also chairman of Burberry Group.

The company said Murphy recently served as chief executive officer at Kingfisher, and was previously CEO at Carlton Communication, Exel, and Greencore Group.

"The board conducted an extensive search for a new chair and we are delighted that Gerry is joining the board and taking on the chair role. He was the unanimous choice of the board and will bring to our board a record of strong and effective boardroom leadership and a deep understanding of retail and consumer-focused businesses and corporate governance," Grote said.

Shares at 0809 GMT were up 3.10 pence, or 1.25%, at 251.50 pence.

On May 19 Tesco said that Allan would step down in June following the claims and named Grote as interim chair.

Allan, who has served at the company since 2015, has denied three of four claims about his conduct toward women, Tesco said at the time. The executive has "unreservedly apologized" for another, which dealt with a comment he made about a woman's dress.

Allan is one of the U.K.'s most prominent business figures, having served previously as president of the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group. The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper, earlier in May published a story citing anonymous sources who claimed that Allan had inappropriately touched two women, and made inappropriate remarks about two others, including at a 2019 event held by the CBI, and at Tesco's 2022 annual meeting.

"It is with regret that I am having to prematurely stand down from my position as Chair of Tesco PLC following the anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations made against me, as reported by the Guardian," Allan said in a statement on May 19. "These allegations are utterly baseless, as the internal procedures undertaken by Tesco prove."

Tesco said in May that it had initiated an investigation into the claims against Allan, which included reviewing footage from its 2022 annual meeting and contacting attendees of the meeting. The investigation didn't identify any evidence or complaints of misconduct by Allan at the meeting or throughout his tenure as Tesco's chair, the company said.

"While we have received no complaints about [Allan]'s conduct and made no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction to Tesco," Grote said in a statement in May.


Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-03-23 0425ET