Tesco Labs head of open innovation Nick Lansley quits retailer after 27 years

Lansley will leave the company on April 13 and is seeking to advise companies on how to start their own innovation teams after a “summer break with the hubby in our new seaside home”.

In a blog post, Lansley wrote: “When I reflect on the last quarter century I’ve had enormous fun, from helping found and build Tesco’s online service, a founding member of Tesco’s staff network for LGBT colleagues, and helping create Tesco Labs innovation group with some incredibly talented people, to name but a few milestones.”

Lansley claims he helped R&D and innovation work at Tesco and “can make it work in many other companies”.

During his time at head of open innovation at Tesco Labs, Lansley and his team were quick to recognise the impending rise of mobile technology and oversaw the launch of a plethora of apps and the introduction of in-store Wi-Fi.

Lansley’s departure comes a month after it emerged Tesco IT chief Mike McNamara was leaving the grocer to join Target as the US retailer’s executive vice-president and CIO.

McNamara was a long-standing Tesco employee much like Lansley and had joined Tesco in 1999 before becoming the retailer’s CIO in 2011.

Tesco is in the midst of a restructuring process as new boss Dave Lewis seeks to drastically cut head office costs after the supermarket revealed it had overstated its profits by £263m.