17) Andrew Woolfenden
Title: UK distribution director, Tesco
There are fewer more high-profile, and demanding, jobs in road transport and logistics than running the in-house operations of (still) Britain’s biggest retailer.
Tesco has had a rough 18-months, posting its worst set of annual results and a pre-tax loss of £6.38bn in February. Much-hand wringing and soul searching ensued, as the retailer looked to put itself back on the right track. A few months later, the incumbent to this position – Alex Laffey – left to become the chief executive of Eddie Stobart Logistics leaving Woolfenden the man for the job.
He’s been at Tesco for a while, spending a year-and-a-half as retail director, three years as operations director (extras) and three years as distribution director of fresh and frozen foods (to name but three positions). He’s in charge of a division of Tesco that had a turnover of £1.7bn at the end of February 2015, employs 12,247 people and has a remit of delivering significant cost savings throughout the entirety of Tesco’s supply chain.
- Every day over Christmas and the New Year we will be counting down the Motor Transport Power Players from 20 to one, so come back tomorrow at 9am to see who is next in our countdown. As ever, we'd welcome your feedback and input into the debate. Send us your thoughts on Twitter @Motor_Transport using #MTPowerPlayers
