Morrisons hires senior figure from Waitrose

Morrisons has announced that Martyn Jones, the group trading director, is moving into a new role as group corporate services director, reporting to chief executive Dalton Philips.

The role will focus on the "increasingly important" areas of Government affairs, corporate responsibility, public relations and food safety.

A Morrisons spokesman said: "Martyn's appointment to this position reflects Morrisons commitment to playing its full part in the national agenda on food and food related matters.

"Martyn will take up the new position from September 2010 at which time he will also step down from the Morrisons board, once he has completed a smooth transition of his trading director responsibilities."

Morrisons has also announced the appointment of Richard Hodgson as its new group commercial director.

Mr Hodgson has broad experience across all areas of the UK grocery market and has held a number of key roles in both the premium and value sectors.

Since 2006 he has been at Waitrose, initially as director of buying and, from January 2008, as commercial director, which added marketing, international development and merchandising to his responsibilities.

Before this, he spent 10 years at Asda in a number of senior roles, most recently as brand and marketing director.

Dalton Philips, Morrisons chief executive, said: "Martyn is a retail heavyweight who has made an enormous contribution to Morrisons success over a number of years. He has valuable experience in all areas of food retailing and will make an immediate and significant impact in his new role as group corporate services director.

"I'm delighted to welcome Richard to the Morrisons team. He brings wide experience from all areas of the UK grocery market and has made a big impact in all of his senior roles.

"His appointment underlines Morrisons ability to attract the very best talent in retail to our team and we very much look forward to working with him."