Andrew Reitzer is saying farewell after 15 years as CEO of Metcash.

Reitzer said it was the right time to be moving on and said that he had thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was proud of his achievements.

“Today I am very pleased that Metcash punches above its weight and continues to make a difference in the sectors in which it operates. Most pleasing though is the way our stakeholders have benefitted over the last 15 years,” he said.

The company has now appointed Ian Morrice as the new CEO. Reitzer will step down as CEO on 30 June 2013; he will be retained as a consultant to the Board for the next three years as previously announced.

Peter Barnes, Metcash chairman, thanked Reitzer for his achievement.

“The Board has very much enjoyed working with Andrew; he is a very professional businessman. He assembled a very good executive team and achieved some notable milestones. The market capitalisation of the company has increased from $130m in the year he took over to $3.1bn today. Sales have increased significantly over this period from $4.5bn to $13bn today. No matter how you look at this, Andrew has been very successful,” he said.