Morrisons joint managing director Marie Melnyk and Safeway managing director for operations Jack Sinclair will play a key role in delivering business synergies at the merged business.
The pair will be in charge of unifying the buying teams - including renegotiating supply agreements and merging buying books - which is vital for trading harmonisation.
Melnyk took a back seat as Sir Ken Morrison, joint managing director Bob Stott and finance director Martin Ackroyd ran Morrisons'£3 billion bid, recommended by Safeway on Monday.
In the meantime, Melnyk played a pivotal role in ensuring continued strong performance at Morrisons over the past 12 months.
Stott said: 'Trading and marketing is the engine room of Morrisons. It will be the key source of synergies.' Morrisons intends to deliver synergies of no less than£215 million a year to Jan-uary 2008.
Assuming the deal goes through, Morrisons will become the UK's fourth biggest food retailer, with a 15.6 per cent market share - close to Sainsbury's and Asda.
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