Danish grocery veteran Per Bank will replace Galen Weston at the helm of Loblaw Cos. Ltd., Canada’s largest food and drug chain.

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Galen Weston steps back from day-to-day operations of Loblaw as grocer hires new CEO Back to video

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Bank, who has led the Denmark retail giant Salling Group A/S for more than a decade, will join Loblaw early next year as president and chief executive, Loblaw announced on April 18. Weston, currently Loblaw’s president and chairman, will “step back from day-to-day management of the business” and focus on his roles as both Loblaw chairman and chief executive of Loblaw’s parent company George Weston Ltd., he told analysts on a conference call.

The company said the change is a response to the upcoming retirement of Robert Sawyer, Loblaw’s chief operating officer, who has been running the retail business for two years. Weston took back the reins at Loblaw in 2021 and recruited Sawyer out of retirement. Since then, Loblaw has credited Sawyer, the former COO of Metro Inc. and CEO of Rona Inc., with delivering “two years of superb performance.” In 2022, the company’s adjusted net profits jumped about 18 per cent year over year to $2.3 billion.

With Sawyer, 70, slated to return to retirement at the end of 2023, Loblaw launched a search for a “slightly younger version of Robert” to take over the business, chief financial officer Richard Dufresne told analysts.

“If you could find a Robert Sawyer who was 55, that would be an ideal combination. In Per, we think we found that,” Weston said. “This is not a sharp left turn. This is about evolution and building.”

Bank’s new title, as CEO, could represent a shift in power dynamics at Loblaw. Traditionally, Loblaw hasn’t had a chief executive, only a president. That had to change to attract the sort of candidate Loblaw was looking for, according to William Downe, the former CEO of Bank of Montreal who sits on the Loblaw board and was a member of the search committee.

“If you want to attract someone who’s an existing CEO, it’s going to have to be into a chief executive role,” he said. “And there are some implications to that.”

Before Weston took over as president in 2021, he served as executive chair and the company’s president reported directly to him, he told analysts. But as CEO, Bank will report to the board.

“There’s important symbolism in that,” Weston said.

But he said he still expects to be in locksteap with the new head of Loblaw.

“I represent the controlling shareholders as the key executive. I’ll be the chief executive of the holding company,” Weston said. “It’s essential that there’s a high level of alignment between myself and any chief executive … and so I would expect that dynamic to continue.”

Weston has found himself in the middle of a harsh spotlight in the past year, as Canada’s largest grocers faced public scrutiny for boosting profits at a time when their customers faced the worst inflation in 40 years. Last month, Weston and his counterparts at Empire Co. Ltd. and Metro Inc. were summoned to Ottawa to face questions from a parliamentary inquiry into inflation and profits. At that hearing, New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh treated Weston so coarsely that the committee chair had to intervene.

Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas said the recent drama around inflation had nothing to do with Weston’s decision.

“That would be an entirely wrong way to look at it,” she said, adding that the executive search started in August 2022.

Irene Nattel, an analyst at RBC Dominion Securities Inc., said the management changes “should come as no surprise” to Loblaw investors. In a note to clients, she said Sawyer had already extended his tenure by about a year longer than planned.

“In Mr. Bank,” Nattel said, “Loblaw has found another strong operator.”

At Salling Group, a Danish chain of supermarkets and department stores, Bank currently oversees a network of more than 1,700 outlets and 61,800 employees in Denmark, Germany and Poland, according to a 2021 report.

Loblaw’s network of more than 2,400 stores and 190,000 employees includes Shoppers Drug Mart, No Frills, Provigo and Real Canadian Superstore.

In a statement, Salling Group spokesperson Henrik Olesen said the company was proud Bank was “selected as CEO of a large international retailer.”

• Email: jedmiston@postmedia.com | Twitter: jakeedmiston