Tesco director jumps ship to Sainsbury's

Harding, who joins next spring, will have a seat on the grocer’s operating board and replaces Lawrence Christensen, who has run the business since Jim McCarthy’s defection to Poundland last year. Christensen will retain an advisory role with Sainsbury’s.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King said: “Growing our presence in the convenience channel has been an important part of our making Sainsbury’s Great Again plans. We’ve made great progress over the past three years, but we know there is further potential. Dido’s combination of marketing, trading and operational experience means she is ideally qualified to lead the next stage of this development.”

In 2004, Sainsbury’s said it intended to increase convenience sales to£400 million by March 2008 and last May disclosed it would open a further 100 c-stores by March 2010.

At present, Harding is chief executive of Tesco’s development programme. Her previous roles include stints as Tesco international support director and commercial director, added value foods. She has also worked for Kingfisher.