Claire Peters Woolworths

Leading Australian retailers has appointed Claire Peters as managing director of Woolworths Supermarkets.

The current chief operating officer of Tesco Thailand, Peters brings more than 20 years of retail experience to the new role, which begins 1 July 2017.

Reporting to Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci, Peters role will be to oversee a team of more than 115,000 Woolworths employees across 992 supermarkets.

'After an extensive search for the right candidate, we are delighted to welcome someone of Claire's calibre to our team. Cultural fit is critically important to us and Claire has the ability to work with our team to further develop our ‘Customer First and Team First’ strategy,” said Banducci.

'Woolworths is one of Australia’s most iconic brands. The strategy for our transformation is clearly defined and starting to deliver results. Claire has a proven track record in working with teams to deliver against key strategic objectives and she is the right person to work with our team to continue the good progress we have already made.”

Peters said she was exciting to be joining Woolworths and continuing to drive Woolworths' customer-led strategy.

Prior to joining Tesco Thailand in 2014, Peters spent more than two decades at Tesco in the UK, beginning her retail career as a graduate before holding store management roles and progressing to managing director of large stores, and commercial director of healthcare & baby, beauty and toiletries.