The self-styled "chubby grocer" is aiming to be a far more streamlined shopkeeper within the next three months.
Mark Price, the rather rotund managing director of the foodie supermarket Waitrose, has pledged to lose 10cm (4in) off his waist by Easter. He will be writing a "notsochubby" blog about his battle to drop a dinner jacket size without changing his love of fine food, good wine - and lots of it.
Price has always maintained that girth is good in a grocer - and that the quality of the food available in a supermarket is directly related to the size of the chief executive's waistband. He points to the whippet-like Andy Bond at Asda, the lean Sir Terry Leahy at Tesco and the "little bit chubby" Justin King at Sainsbury's as proof of his theory. They are, he says, "size-zero chief executives who push a green salad round a plate".
The Waitrose boss, however, is a serious foodie, who also loves cigars and hates exercise - and nothing is going to change simply because he has to lose weight.
Introducing his daily blog, which starts today, Price says he is going on a new year diet "against my better judgment" and as a result of his wife and colleagues pursuing "a conspired agenda to turn me into the 'not so chubby' grocer".
So he is joining the estimated one million people across the country who will start a new year diet this week.
Price says he has consulted Waitrose's in-house nutritionist about how he might shed the 10kg (1.5 stone) that will trim his tummy. "I've told her I am not changing my lifestyle," he said. "We have had a robust exchange of views. I am not stopping drinking and I am not stopping going out to dinner."
The nutritionist, Moira Howie, who Price says wielded a tape measure from the DIY shop Wickes to measure his waist, insists her boss can reshape his silhouette just by eating less of what is on his plate and moving his feet a little more often.
"I have told her there is absolutely no possibility of me jogging, going to the gym or swimming," said Price. "I refuse point blank. But I am going to start taking the lift to the fourth floor when I am heading for the fifth, and walking the last bit. After a month I might get off at the third."
He adds: "And I am not eating any alfalfa beans, either."
Price's daily blog will contain a daily food diary and possibly some good gossip: he also intends to write about each of his breakfast, lunch and dinner companions as he goes about his business day. "I'm going to expose all about who I eat with and what they say."
