Cash and carry king worth £250m lined up for Tesco top job

BOOKER’S boss has been put in charge of Tesco’s stores.

Charles Wilson will head the supermarket’s retail and wholesale division in the UK and Ireland after it bought the cash-and-carry group for £3.7bn.

Many speculate his appointment puts him in pole position to replace Dave Lewis as chief executive of the entire company when he steps down.

Former Tesco UK boss Matt Davies, meanwhile, has been pushed out.

Tesco was recently given the green light from regulators to take over Booker, which is the UK’s largest wholesaler.

Tesco has upgraded its profit forecast as a result of the merger, which is expected to receive widespread backing from shareholders.

It is now preparing to make profits of £1.58bn in 2017/18, compared with analyst predictions of £1.56bn and last year’s profits which totalled £1.28bn.

Wilson, 52, (pictured) – who is worth an estimated £250m – will be paid an annual salary of £575,000, with the opportunity to pocket a bonus as high as £3m each year, paid through a mix of cash and shares.

City analysts welcomed the appointment, noting Wilson’s ‘excellent track record’. He has been credited with the turnaround of Booker, which was on the verge of collapse when he joined.

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: ‘Wilson is considered to be one of the best names in the retail industry and a potential successor to Tesco boss Dave Lewis longer term.’

Former colleagues have also piled praise on Wilson, with some describing him as a ‘genius’ and applaud him for his ‘relentless work ethic’. But he takes over Tesco’s stores as they battle discount grocers Aldi and Lidl, which have been stealing market share from the big players. Tesco, which still has more than 20pc share of all grocery shopping, has also been fighting to keep costs down after sterling’s slump in the wake of the EU referendum.

Tesco has more than 3,000 stores across the UK, while Londis and Budgens owner Booker is the country’s largest wholesaler. It supplies more than 5,000 stores under the Premier, Londis, Budgens and Family Shopper brands, as well as thousands of independent retailers and caterers.

Born in Hull, Wilson studied geography at Durham University before starting his career with Oral-B and Pampers owner Procter & Gamble in 1986.

He joined Booker as executive director before it merged with Iceland in 2000. A year later Wilson became an executive director of Arcadia Group and in 2004 he became an executive director of Marks & Spencer.

He was appointed chief executive of Booker in 2005. He is also a senior research fellow at Oxford University’s Said Business School and lives with his long-term partner Rowena Olegario, also a senior research fellow at Said Business School. Lewis, meanwhile, has been tipped as favourite to take the reins at Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever, with chief executive Paul Polman preparing to step down next year.

Nicknamed Drastic Dave because of his reputation for cutting jobs, the 52-year-old Tesco boss was widely viewed as being Polman’s protege before he left to run Tesco in 2014.

Welcoming Wilson’s appointment, Lewis said: ‘Charles brings substantial commercial and retail experience, and has an exceptional track record of increasing performance and driving growth in customer-focused businesses.

‘He is ideally suited to lead the UK and Ireland business for the combined group in the next phase of our turnaround.’