Burberry’s boss Gerry Murphy to take over as Tesco chair

City veteran Gerry Murphy has been lined up to replace John Allan as the chairman of Tesco, according to reports.

Murphy, 67, already chairs luxury fashion house Burberry and sweetener maker Tate & Lyle.

It comes after Allan left the group in May following a series of anonymous allegations of personal misconduct, including that he ‘grabbed’ an employee at an event in 2019. Allan has said this was ‘simply untrue’.

Tesco’s own investigation did not find any evidence of wrongdoing but it said that the claims of inappropriate behaviour risked becoming a distraction to the business.

Murphy has a long and experienced career in the retail industry.

New face: Gerry Murphy will step down from his role at Tate & Lyle on September 1 to make sure he has ‘sufficient capacity’ to act as chair of Tesco

He previously ran B&Q-owner Kingfisher and has sat on the boards of Dettol-maker Reckitt Benckiser and British American Tobacco and chaired the European arm of private equity titan Blackstone.

Murphy will step down from his role at Tate & Lyle on September 1 to make sure he has ‘sufficient capacity’ to act as chair of Tesco.

He will be joining the £17.7 billion supermarket at a time when the industry has been accused of profiteering and been under close scrutiny for posting huge profits during the cost-of-living crisis.

Last week, Tesco’s commercial director Gordon Gafa defended the group in front of a committee of MPs, saying it was spending £560 million to keep prices low for shoppers. Allan was at the helm of Tesco for eight years. He arrived as the company was cutting thousands of jobs under plans laid out by then-chief executive Sir Dave Lewis.