Three years ago, Steve Rowe, Chief Executive Officer of Marks & Spencer (M&S) (pictured), set out the need to ‘face the facts’ about the challenges facing M&S and a three-phase transformation programme, beginning with ‘Fixing the Basics.’
Since then, there have been far reaching changes in how the business is organised, its people and culture, the shape of the store estate, use of technology, and improvements in product and value to broaden appeal. As a result, the business is now moving on from the ‘Fixing the Basics’ phase to reinvest in the brand and restore growth. We are therefore announcing a realignment in the leadership team’s responsibilities as follows:
Katie Bickerstaffe and Stuart Machin will become Joint Chief Operating Officers. Stuart will continue as Managing Director of Food but also take oversight responsibility for Operations, Property, Store Development and IT. Katie will give oversight to the Data, Services, Clothing and Home and International businesses.
Eoin Tonge will take on Strategy and Transformation Planning as part of his remit as Chief Financial Officer.
Sacha Berendji moves from his current operations role to focus on “Future Stores” and accelerate the development of our 10X digital stores, store renewal, store rotation and IT.
Richard Price and Paul Friston remain as Managing Directors of Clothing and Home and International respectively.
The Executive Committee will continue to operate as the business’s central decision-making body and its membership is unchanged.
Rowe said, “Over the last three years we have built a great team of people at M&S and covered a lot of ground. Now we need to move into the next phase, and that means accelerating the pace of change, and Stuart and Katie will bring even more impetus to our core businesses. With that I will, with Eoin’s support, be better able to concentrate on building the M&S of the future and our path to growth.”