Tesco has lost a highly rated executive, who had been considered a potential successor to Sir Terry Leahy, to its French rival Carrefour. James McCann, 40, former head of Tesco’s business in Hungary, was yesterday poached by Carrefour to run its huge, ailing French business.
As part of a big boardroom shake-up by Lars Olofsson, the former Nestl? executive trying to rejuvenate Carrefour, Mr McCann will become Carrefour’s only British senior executive when he starts in February. Carrefour said: “James McCann has extensive strategic knowledge of client relationship management, which he acquired during his career at a global retail leader that has made client relationships a key to its success.”
Mr Olofsson, who has said that Carrefour lost its focus on value in France because of laws that banned loss-leading, is believed to want to instil some of Tesco’s aggression into Carrefour.
Mr McCann, a fluent French speaker, began his career at Shell, before becoming J Sainsbury’s non-food buying director.