Emily Wood has been appointed head of beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks at Waitrose, replacing Pierpaolo Petrassi MW, who left in June after 16 years with the company.

Wood joins Waitrose after 12 years with Marks & Spencer, where she was most recently head of meat, poultry, fish, dairy and deli.

She will start her new role on 26 October.

Wood said: “I look forward to working with the team to drive innovation and build on the strong market reputation.”

The Waitrose drinks team has two other new additions. James Bone is returning to the BWS department to take up the role of wine trading manager, while Laura Tudor has taken the role of trading manager for spirits, beers and soft drinks.

Waitrose said both Bone and Tudor have “held multiple key trading positions across Waitrose and bring extensive internal experience and deep product knowledge to the team.”