UPDATED: Tesco multichannel director Robin Terrell and clothing boss Jason Tarry have both been handed new roles as part of the grocer’s reshuffle, unveiled on Monday.

Terrell is now head of customer and Tarry is head of commercial for UK and the group.

Retail Week profiled the two in September when they were both tasked with leading the UK temporarily due to the accounting scandal:

 

Tesco multichannel director Robin Terrell and clothing boss Jason Tarry have stepped in after the grocer suspended senior executives following a shock profit understatement.

While Tesco launches an investigation into the £250m full-year profit understatement scandal, Terrell has been named as the man who is “now running and leading the UK leadership team”, although chief executive Dave Lewis has not confirmed that UK boss Chris Bush has been suspended.

UK finance director Carl Rogberg, food sourcing director Matt Simister and UK food commercial director John Scouler have been suspended. Tarry has been tasked with taking over Scouler’s responsibilities.

Here, Retail Week takes a look how Terrell and Tarry measure up.

Robin Terrell

Robin_Terrell_Tesco

Tesco’s multichannel director only joined the retailer last year and has stepped in to take control of Tesco’s UK business, assuming responsibility from Chris Bush who appears to have been caught up in the controversy at one of the world’s biggest retailers.

Terrell is highly regarded for his digital ecommerce talent, formerly spearheading online growth at John Lewis and Amazon as well as House of Fraser but observers have questioned his lack of skills within stores.

He will now be in charge of Tesco’s vast empire of 3,378 shops amid a chaotic time at the retailer, which, apart from the profit overstatement, has recorded its worst quarter in 40 years, and parachuted new boss Dave Lewis and today new chief financial officer Alan Stewart in early.

But with experience working across channels, stores are not completely alien to him. And he is not the first multichannel director to be put in charge of stores, take Laura Wade Gery, multichannel director at Marks & Spencer who has recently been given responsibility for retail too.

 

Jason Tarry

Jason Tarry

Jason Tarry

The chief executive for clothing at Tesco may feel a little out of place in his new role taking on the responsibilities of John Scouler UK food commercial director.

Tarry has held responsibility for clothing for a while, and has been at the grocer for more than 20 years, so he is likely to have knowledge in most parts of the business including its core food offer.

But it remains to be seen whether he is able to draw on former experience in the food division and hone it to Scouler’s level.