Marketing chief quits at Safeway

Bray leaves supermarket chain ‘by mutual agreement’ in the midst of fierce takeover battle

Safeway’s marketing director Karen Bray is leaving the supermarket, which is at the centre of a takeover battle.

It is not known whether the marketer, who has been marketing director at the supermarket for the past two years, has a job to go to. A company statement says she is “leaving by mutual agreement”.

But the statement also says: “Work on building the Safeway brand has reduced in line with the cutback in Safeway’s store reformatting programme.”

Martin Pugh, who was poached from Comet last year, has been promoted from director of marketing operations to marketing director with immediate effect. Pugh, who was head of marketing at Comet, will report to group marketing and trading director Jack Sinclair. Pugh will focus on the operational delivery of Safeway’s tactical marketing programme, including its promotional flyers.

Safeway appointed Clemmow Hornby Inge last year in the hope of boosting the brand’s profile through TV advertising (MW July 18, 2002).

But the appointment came just months before the announcement of a bid for the supermarket group from Morrisons in January (MW January 16). Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Philip Green have all since declared an interest in bidding for the supermarket chain and the Competition Commission is investigating Morrisons’ bid for the group.

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