Sausage roll to sandwich retailer Greggs has poached the retail director of Sainsbury's supermarket to be its new chief executive.

Ken McKeikan will join the board in June, replacing Sir Michael Darrington who is retiring as managing director. He has spent the past 17 years working for a range of supermarkets including Tesco where his responsibilities including CEO of Europa Foods acquired by Tesco in 2002. He oversaw the integration of the convenience store business into the Tesco Express format, prior to heading up Tesco Japan and then joining Sainsbury's in 2005.

Sir Michael has worked for Greggs for the past 25 years. He joined in July 1983 and became managing director the following January. Despite handing over responsibility to McKeikan, he will remain on the board as a non-executive director.