Sainsbury’s has poached Dixons group property director Philip Bell-Brown to become its director of property development.

Dixons has promoted head of UK estate Steve Bennett to replace Bell-Brown.

At Sainsbury’s, Bell-Brown’s duties will include all site acquisitions and town planning. He joins in November and will report to Sainsbury’s property director Neil Sachdev.

Sachdev said: “Philip has an unrivalled reputation in retail and his experience will be instrumental in helping to deliver our future growth in both food and non food.

“I am sure he will have a significant impact in helping to deliver our ambitious targets and in turn creating jobs and opportunities in towns and cities across the UK.”

Bell-Brown was also previously at Halfords, where he opened the retailer’s first stores in the Czech Republic, and prior to that was at Boots, where he held a series of senior positions, most recently head of acquisitions.

In his new Dixons role Bennett will continue with the implementation of Dixons’ renewal & transformation plan in the UK and overseas, in which he has already played a key role.

A Dixons spokesman said Bennett has played “a significant part in the success of our store transformation programme in recommending and establishing where we locate new stores, 2-in-1 developments and refits to get the best performance out of our estate for the benefit of our customers”.




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