Sainsbury’s customer director to be chief marketer at Homeserve
Sainsbury’s director of customer marketing Andrew Ground is leaving the supermarket to join household repair services group Homeserve as marketing director.
Ground, who has been responsible for overseeing Sainsbury’s participation in the Nectar loyalty scheme, will leave the supermarket in the autumn.
News of his forthcoming departure follows a restructure at Sainsbury’s in which trading director Stephen Nelson was made marketing director (MW June 3). Nelson took over responsibility for marketing from Sara Weller, who left to join Argos as managing director.
Former Procter & Gamble marketer Ground joined Sainsbury’s in 1997 as senior manager for brand advertising, working under then group marketing director Kevin McCarten. He had a stint as development director of health and beauty before being made director of customer marketing under Weller.
It is not clear whether Sainsbury’s will replace Ground directly or whether his responsibilities will be shared out among the rest of the marketing team.
The exact extent of Ground’s responsibilities at Homeserve are not clear. The holding company, which was demerged from water supplier South Staffordshire in April, has a number of subsidiary businesses including Home Service, which insures households against a range of plumbing, drainage and electrical disasters. It also operates Regency, an upholstery repair service, and Highway, which repairs windows, locks, greenhouses and garage doors.
