N Brown appoints Tesco UK & Ireland boss Matt Davies as chairman

Retailer N Brown has appointed Matt Davies - currently the head of UK and Ireland for Tesco - as its new chairman, succeeding Andrew Higginson.

He will assume the role on 1 May, when Higginson retires from the board.

Davies has been CEO of Tesco UK and Ireland since May 2015. Prior to that, he was CEO of Halfords from 2012 to 2015 and finance director and CEO of Pets at Home.

Higginson said: "We are delighted to welcome Matt Davies to N Brown. Matt is a first-class retailer and brings a wealth of experience to the group. He has a proven track record of value creation across retail and online through his roles as CEO of Tesco UK and ROI and as CEO of Halfords and Pets at Home. It has been a privilege to chair the company through the past five years, and I wish the business every success in the coming years."

Davies said: "I am delighted and excited to be taking on this role. I am really looking forward to working with Angela, her team and my fellow non-executive directors to further develop and grow the N Brown business.”

At 0920 GMT, the shares were up 1.9% to 192.60p.

Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said Davies is "an excellent replacement" for Higginson, having had "considerable success at a pretty young age".

"Shore Capital warmly welcomes this appointment, which to us reflects especially well on the work of senior independent director, Ron McMillan, plus the attraction of the wider group to him led by CEO Angela Spindler."