Tesco selects roster for own-brand packaging

Supermarket giant Tesco has appointed up to 15 consultancies to its own-brand packaging design roster, and selected a new head of design to co-ordinate the work they carry out, as the latest stage of its design reorganisation.

Outgoing design manager Richard Murphy will hand the reigns of a down-sized design department to Beverley Churchill as head of design at the end of the year. She will take up her position on 2 November, working with Murphy for a handover period.

Churchill was previously a member of the Tesco design team, and is one of the few staff not to be redeployed to other departments of the business when the in-house design function was axed (DW 16 October). “Beverley will be responsible for the brand look, and be looking after the roster of agencies and category teams,” says Murphy.

Each rostered consultancy will be allocated a specific own-brand product category. Churchill will be the “final arbiter” of packaging design, says Murphy.

Changes further up the managerial ladder will see more directors appointed at senior levels, says Murphy. Tesco currently has four commercial directors, each looking at specific business areas. More directors, at the same level but looking at issues which span the four divisions, are to be appointed he says.

Churchill will report to one of these, as yet unappointed, commercial support directors.

Murphy declines to identify the groups appointed to the new roster, but says successful applicants have been notified. They are believed to include Pemberton and Whitefoord, Pentagram, Blue Marlin and Ian Logan Design. Spokesmen for each group decline to comment on their presence on the roster.

Staff at London group Rocket confirm it has been appointed.

Between ten and 15 consultancies were expected to be included on the roster (DW 2 October).