“We need a full-time fully experienced retail executive to come in,” said Stuart Rose, the chair of Asda, a month ago as he confessed to being “embarrassed” about the supermarket chain’s loss of market share. Now he has found someone who fits the bill temporarily: one Lord Rose of Monewden. He will “assume” day-to-day executive responsibilities from Mohsin Issa, one of the co-owners and leaders of the £6.8bn leveraged buyout of Asda in 2021.
Rose definitely counts as fully experienced since he’s led Burton, Argos, Arcadia, Marks & Spencer and more in his time. But a return to executive duties at the youthful age of 75 probably wasn’t what he envisaged when he hopped onboard the Issa brothers/TDR Capital buyout vehicle. Offerings of sage advice from the back-seat was surely the gist of the original script.
