Peter Marks to leave Co-operative

Events move quickly at the Co-operative Group. Three weeks after the Co-op agreed to buy 632 branches from Lloyds Banking Group, chief executive Peter Marks has announced he won't be hanging around to see how the acquisition beds in. He will depart in May next year, six months before the so-called Verde business arrives. Marks will be 63 in October and 45 years within the Co-op movement counts as a decent innings. It's also true that winning the right to buy Verde (and at a very good price) has taken a long time. All the same, if this was a public company, the shareholders would have expected to know ahead of a transformational deal that the top man would play no part in managing the assets.