DIY group Kingfisher has named Superdrug boss Euan Sutherland as chief executive of its UK operations.

His appointment comes after a shake-up of the group’s management roles by Kingfisher group chief executive Ian Cheshire, who took the helm in January and last week laid out plans for a three-year transformation programme.

Sutherland will effectively replace Cheshire as the boss of DIY chain B&Q. He joins after four years at Superdrug and has also worked in senior roles at Matalan and DSGi.

“He is an experienced, hands-on operator, with a proven track record at some of the UK’s biggest retailers,” said Cheshire.

Last week, Kingfisher halved its final dividend and unveiled a transformation programme that would begin at the start of 2009, once the B&Q owner had recruited a new management team. Cheshire pledged to increase co-ordination between units with three divisional heads for the UK, France and “other international businesses”, who will sit on a centralised retail board.

The group, which has 780 stores in nine countries in Europe and Asia, reported pre-tax profits down 2.8 per cent to£386 million for the year to February 2, in line with City forecasts. Group like-for-like sales rose 2.6 per cent to£9.3 billion.