Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Morrisons, Naked Wines and Tesco

Morrisons online boss poised to depart

Morrisons’ online managing director Simon Thompson has become the latest executive to exit the supermarket group.

The grocer’s group customer, marketing and digital director Nick Collard is to take on the responsibilities for the operation of Morrisons.com at board level, The Drum reported.

Its day-to-day running will lie with Matt Kelleher, at present trading director for non-food and operations. Jamie Winter, trading director for Morrisons.com, will move from that role over the coming weeks to become trading director for operations and services.

Naked Wines delivers strong Christmas trading

Online wine retailer Naked Wines has reported strong Christmas trading - up nearly 40% year on year. Over the course of 2014, it shipped a record 13 million bottles. The retailer plans to invest £70m in wine producers this year.

Tesco retains top position in Ireland

Irish supermarket chains achieved their best Christmas since 2010 as shoppers loosened purse strings to splash out for the festive season. Tesco retained its spot as Ireland’s top grocer, despite its market share falling  2% to 25.4% in the 12 weeks to January. SuperValu’s market share inched up 0.3% to 25%, placing it second, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel. Aldi and Lidl again emerged as big winners over Christmas, with market shares of 12.2% and 7.4%, respectively.