Matalan shops at Asda for new finance director

The new chief executive of Matalan returned to Asda to beef up the discount retailer's board after its finance director announced plans to step down at the end of the financial year.

Paul Mason, who joined Matalan from Asda in January, poached Phil Dutton from the US-owned supermarket chain to replace Ian Smith. Mr Dutton, 41, is the third former Asda executive to join Matalan's board since February.

"Asda is a great retailer and they are only 60 miles away in the north," Mr Mason said, denying that he had designs on any of the chain's other employees. "I like to think we have effected most of the change," he added, referring to the five recent executive appointees from outside the company.

Mr Dutton, who joins Matalan as retail finance director next month, will also be responsible for overseeing the group's £25m computer systems overhaul. "He gained a fabulous piece of rounding experience at Asda where he converted it to the Wal-Mart [IT] system [after the UK company's takeover], something I think is driving the achievements in Asda today," Mr Mason said.

Matalan, a former stock market star, is revamping its systems after the discovery of a fraud perpetrated by a supplier who had been invoicing the company twice for the same goods.

Mr Smith, 51, will remain as a consultant to the board after he leaves next February. A spokesman said the size of his pay-off had not been decided. Mr Smith, who has a house in Spain, received a pay package totalling £459,000 last year.

John Hargreaves, the founder and chairman of Matalan, said Mr Smith's contribution during the 11 years he has been at the group had been "indispensable".

Iain McDonald, retail analyst at Numis Securities, said the biggest challenge for Matalan was coping with the surge in sales of Asda's George clothing range, which yesterday reported a 30 per cent rise in like-for-like growth. "The heat is really from Asda. It comes a week after Tesco said it would be aggressively pushing its [new discount] clothing line, Cherokee," Mr McDonald said.

Mr Mason said Matalan, which saw its share price collapse after a profits warning last year, had plenty of growth left to chase. "I believe a successful George within Asda helped us because it helps illustrate to more and more people the great value products they can buy in the [discount] market."

In February, Andy Clarke joined Matalan from Asda as its retail director and Roger Burnley took over as its supply-chain director.