Tesco on the hunt for fourth marketing boss in three years as Robin Terrell departs

It’s all change at Tesco, with chief customer officer Robin Terrell set to depart Britain’s biggest supermarket brand.

Tesco’s chief customer officer Robin Terrell is set to depart the supermarket after less than two years in charge of marketing

A Tesco spokesman has confirmed a “successor will be revealed in due course”.

Marketing Week can confirm the role of chief customer officer will not be scrapped and that Tesco is still looking for a replacement. It is not yet known whether Tesco will look internally – with promoting group brand director Michelle McEttrick a possibility – or externally to fill the role.

Terrell, who had final say over Tesco’s marketing and also served on the executive committee, has resigned from the post in order to explore a different direction in his career.

“Robin has decided to resign from Tesco in order to pursue a different direction in his career and we fully respect that decision,” says a Tesco spokesman. “We’d like to thank Robin for his significant contribution to Tesco during an important time for our business. We wish him well for the future.”

Terrell initially joined Tesco as group multichannel director in February 2013, before being promoted to chief customer officer last January, where he has overseen the launch of marketing initiatives such as Brand Guarantee.

He has previously held senior posts at the likes of Amazon and, speaking about his former employer to Marketing Week last year, said: “Tesco is focused on improving our service to customers as that is what will ensure they don’t have a reason to shop at Amazon Fresh in the first place. It is a very big market and there’s room for us all.”

Tesco hasn’t been afraid to chop and change its marketing bosses over recent years, with the likes of Matt Atkinson and Jill Easterbrook both taking up the role and moving on since 2014.

The departure of Terrell comes amid a positive period for Tesco. In June, the supermarket notched up its second consecutive quarter of UK sales growth after like-for-like sales in the first quarter of the year rose 0.3%, after a 0.9% uptick in the previous period.

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