Bush, who has worked for the company for 30 years, will take up the new position following nine months as chief operating officer.
Phillip Clarke, who for the last nine months has been both group chief executive and in charge of running the UK business, will relinquish the role of ceo of the core chain to concentrate on his group role.
Clarke today wrote on Tesco’s website, that Bush was “undoubtedly a very talented retailer and leader”.
Last January Tesco saw like-for-like sales fall by 2.3%, against a third quarterly rise of 0.9%, for the period ending January 7 2012.
Sales increase
However, the retailer today reported a much happier Christmas with sales up by nearly 2%.
Tesco also announced that Robin Tarrell would take up the role of multi-channel director in February.
Tarrell joins from House of Fraiser where he has led the multichannel development since 2010. Before that he spent two years leading John Lewis’s online operations and six-years as md of Amazon.co.uk.
Ken Towle will replace Gordon Fryett as head of Tesco’s European business when he retires in November.