Sainsbury boss quits after failed Asda deal

Coupe pays for collapse of £14bn merger last year

THE boss of Sainsbury’s has quit less than a year after he had to abandon his plan to merge the supermarket with Asda.

Mike Coupe, who was caught singing ‘We’re in the Money’ on the day the proposed £14bn deal was announced, will leave at the end of May after six years in charge.

The 59-year- old is set to be replaced by head of retail and operations Simon Roberts, a former managing director of Boots in the UK.

Since taking charge in 2014, Coupe has been paid £14.2m, and could earn up to £5.9m for the current financial year, but Sainsbury’s shares have fallen 33pc on his watch.

He will continue to receive his salary, worth £981,543 a year, until he departs, and holds 2.1m company shares, worth £4.4m.

His exit is the latest major change during a turbulent time for the Big Four supermarkets.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have been forced to slash prices amid growing pressure from discounter rivals Aldi and Lidl and online competitors such as Ocado.

Coupe’s departure follows that of Tesco boss Dave Lewis, who announced that he was quitting in October to be replaced by Ken Murphy, another former Boots executive.

Separately, analysts have speculated Morrisons is lining up finance chief Trevor Strain to succeed boss David Potts and Asda’s owner Walmart is plotting to list it on the stock market. While at Sainsbury’s, Coupe tried to grow the business by snapping up catalogue retailer Argos and household goods seller Habitat in a £1.4bn deal, as well as loyalty card scheme Nectar, for £60m.

His most audacious proposal was a merger with Asda but the plan was dramatically blocked by competition officials, prompting speculation about his future.

Shares in Sainsbury’s fell 2.1pc, or 4.4p, to 208p after yesterday’s announcement. Coupe said: ‘This has been a very difficult decision for me personally. There is never a good time to move on but as we and the industry continue to evolve, now is the right time for me to hand over.’

Coupe, the son of a scientist and a housewife, was brought up in West Sussex and has worked at Unilever, Tesco, Iceland and Asda. The married father-of-two took the helm at Sainsbury’s in 2014 after the departure of former boss Justin King. He was paid £3.9m last year. But retail experts said big ‘question marks’ still hung over the supermarket.

Amid a brutal onslaught from Aldi and Lidl, which have snatched 14pc of the grocery market, Coupe pitched the Asda merger as a way of fighting back, arguing the two retailers could slash costs and lower prices.

But the announcement was overshadowed when he was unwittingly caught on camera singing ‘We’re in the Money’ – from the hit musical 42nd Street he had recently seen – while waiting for television interview.

And he faced another major embarrassment when the merger was blocked last April by the Competition and Markets Authority, which said prices were more likely to go up after a deal.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Coupe had been deal-hungry but may be remembered for his singing rather than retailing. ‘He did the dance with Argos and Nectar but tripped up with attempts to marry Asda,’ he added.

Sainsbury’s said Coupe had not yet decided what to do after leaving. He is known to be a fan of photography and cycling, having ridden from London to Paris for charity, and is a keen guitarist.