Rob Collins, the new boss of Waitrose, is a 22-year veteran of the John Lewis Partnership, having joined the retailer as a graduate trainee in 1993.
The son of former Dixons chairman Sir John Collins, he worked in a number of the group’s department stores – including running John Lewis in Aberdeen and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol – before transferring to Waitrose as director of e-commerce in 2007.
He moved again to become personnel director in April 2010, before being made Waitrose’s retail director in January 2012, where he was in charge of the grocer’s branches as well as e-commerce and convenience stores.
Collins has enjoyed an ultra-low profile outside the partnership during more than two decades at the retailer. While he is listed on the grocer’s board comprising its nine most-senior executives, he is not one of the eight Waitrose directors listed at Companies House, which include his executive colleagues: former finance director Tom Athron, who has just joined the main John Lewis board; commercial director Mark Williamson; and the development director Nigel Keen. A cuttings search only finds 11 occasions on which Collins’s words have been quoted in a national newspaper.
Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, described Collins as “affable, although I can’t say I know him that well”.
He added: “It’s not going to be easy for Rob to make his mark. Cost control was good in the first half of last year, but God knows there is a lot more he can do on that.”
John Lewis Partnership’s chairman, Sir Charlie Mayfield, added: “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.”
A graduate of Edinburgh University in Spanish and business studies, Collins lives in Surrey with his wife, Fleur, and their three children. His hobbies include sailing, cycling and golf.
