Whitbread CIO joins Morrisons

Ben Wishart joins Morrisons as Evolve programme director

Morrisons has confirmed that Ben Wishart, former group CIO of hospitality company Whitbread, joined the supermarket chain earlier this month as Evolve programme director.

Wishart worked as CIO for Whitbread between August 2004 and May 2011.

He continues to sit on the board for eSkills, the National Skills Academy for IT, which he joined in 2006.

Morrison's Evolve programme will cost £310m, and see a total review of hardware and systems across the company's infrastructure.

Changes so far include:

• A new payroll system called Intelligent Labour Planning, which helps stores to understand and plan their staffing requirements more effectively.
• Pegasus, a new till system that reduces paperwork and simplifies processes.
• New logistics systems that deploy voice recognition technology to enable faster store orders.
• A new warehouse management system from Red Prairie.

The chain is now more than halfway through this five-year project.

The Evolve programme began in 2007.