Waitrose boss Mark Price to stand down

The managing director of Waitrose and deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Mark Price, is standing down.

The BBC's business editor Kamal Ahmed believes Mr Price wants to apply for the role of chairman of Channel 4.

He is already deputy chairman at the broadcaster and Lord Burns, the current chairman, is due to retire shortly.

In a statement, Mr Price said he was at "the start of developing" his plans.

Waitrose's retail director Rob Collins will succeed Mr Price at the supermarket.

Mr Price has been at the head of Waitrose for nine years and said he "always had in mind that 10 years would be about the right length of time" before stepping down.

"In addition to continuing as deputy chairman of Channel 4, when I leave in April I shall be working with a major global firm to do client consultancy in the area of employee engagement and I have accepted several invitations to give guest lectures at business schools and universities," Mr Price said.

He has worked for the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, for 33 years.

Analysis: Kamal Ahmed, BBC business editor

Mr Price warned of turmoil in the sector earlier this year when profits at Waitrose dipped by a quarter.

Mr Price is 55 and appears to want one more big challenge in his career.

With the chairman of John Lewis, Sir Charlie Mayfield, not going anywhere soon (and he's younger than Mr Price at 49), the head of Waitrose has decided that the grass is likely to be greener elsewhere.

Read more from Kamal

The chairman of John Lewis Partnership, Sir Charlie Mayfield, said of Mr Price: "He has had a long and distinguished career with the partnership and his leadership of Waitrose has seen outstanding success.

"Rob Collins has been a central figure in Waitrose's management team for a number of years and his strong leadership skills and operational success have ensured that he has been a central part of the board's thinking on succession planning for some time."

The government is reviewing the future of Channel 4 and it is thought Mr Price's commercial background will help it into the future.

Kamal Ahmed said Mr Price wants "one more big challenge in his career."

Price war

During Mr Price's tenure, Waitrose enjoyed many years of rapid growth, but the supermarket price wars and the arrival of the German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, have dented profits and shaken up the sector.

Market research data from Kantar Worldpanel shows Waitrose's sales grew 2.1% over the the past three months, with a market share of 5.2%.

Fraser McKevitt, Kantar's head of retail and consumer insight, said Mr Price had "a strong track record of innovation" at Waitrose, but he warned life was going to be a lot tougher for his successor.

"The supermarket price war shows no signs of abating," he said.

"Consumers have now enjoyed more than 12 months of continually falling prices and are currently pocketing these benefits rather than splashing out on substantially more grocery items, with overall volume growth of only 2%."

Sainsbury's was the only one of the "big four" supermarkets to see sales growth of 1.1%, though its market share was static at 16.1%.

Sales at Asda, the British subsidiary of Wal-Mart, fell 3%, bringing its market share down to 16.6%.

On Monday, Asda said it was going to focus on its larger stores and halt plans for expansion in London in an effort to bolster sales and cut costs.

Tesco was also down by 1.7%, and its market share dipped to 28.1%.

Meanwhile, sales at Morrisons fell by 1.0%, taking its share to 10.8%.

Mr McKevitt said: "For the second successive month, Lidl has reached a new share high, now claiming 4.3% of the market and growth accelerating to 17.9%. Growth was particularly strong in Scotland, the scene of its 'smarter shopping' card trial. It's a similar story for Aldi, where revenues are up 17.6% on a year ago."

He said there was space for retailers to increase both their share and revenue in the online grocery market, since only 18% of households bought groceries online during the last 12 weeks.