Royal Mail eyes Sainsbury chairman

The chairman of J Sainsbury, Britain’s second-biggest food retailer, has been approached to become deputy chairman of Royal Mail, making him a potential successor to Allan Leighton as head of the postal group.
Philip Hampton is one of three candidates to have been shortlisted for the job and a series of interviews have taken place with the headhunter appointed to handle the search. Bob Wigley, chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe and a non-executive director of Royal Mail, has also been approached but it appears he is reluctant to take on the post.

Hampton is seen as a strong candidate. As well as chairing Sainsbury he also been finance director at Lloyds TSB and BT. Royal Mail is keen to find a deputy chairman who can be groomed to succeed Leighton when he steps down in March 2008.

However, the search has been made more difficult because none of the candidates wants to move forward until the government has decided whether it is going to back a financial restructuring at Royal Mail and support issuing 20% of its equity, which is 100% held by government, to staff.

Leighton has been keen to push this through, but Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary, is looking closely at the detail and has delayed a decision until the new year. Only after this is announced will a deputy chairman be named.

Another problem is that every Royal Mail board position has to be advertised. This means it is not automatic that the deputy chairman will take the chairman’s role.

Separately, Royal Mail has this weekend signed a contract with EDF Energy to supply all of its 2,100 sites with 100% renewable energy for the next three years. Steve Boorman, Royal Mail director of corporate and social responsibility, said: “This is part of a wider drive to manage our impact on the environment.”