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Somerfield has restructured its marketing department once again,

marking a U-turn in the business strategy it announced in July. It is

now seeking a board-level marketing director to oversee a new

centralised department.

The ailing retailer has merged business units for Somerfield

supermarkets, convenience stores, main supermarkets and the 450 Kwik

Save stores which it plans to keep, into a single division.

Only the 350 Kwik Save stores which it is selling, and the 24/7 home

shopping business, remain separate, with a separate marketing team.

The move is a total reversal of the strategy Somerfield announced in

July, when it divided its business - and marketing responsibilities -

into four new business units. Phil Smith, group marketing director, was

left without a job following the restructure.

Richard Smith, a former regional operations director, was appointed as

marketing director for Somerfield stores, the group’s main supermarkets

division in July. However, he has been moved to a new change management

division, and reports to Kathryn Brown, who was managing director for

convenience stores.

Tony O’Neill, managing director for Somerfield stores, left the company

last month.

The changes come after Somerfield admitted it was reviewing its

advertising agency situation last week. The statement followed weeks of

denials that it was looking to replace McCann-Erickson, the agency it

appointed after parting company with Leo Burnett in August.

Somerfield has so far shortlisted its former agency, RPM3, and Delaney

Cawley, a start-up agency founded by Mary Cawley, who ran the Somerfield

account at RPM3, to pitch against McCann’s. However, the retailer is

still talking to further agencies about the brief.

In November, Somerfield unveiled plans to sell more than one-third of

its stores in a bid to resurrect the group as an 850-store convenience

chain.