Marks & Spencer has ousted Jill McDonald, the Managing Director of its Clothing and Home division. She took on the role nearly two years ago, tasked with revitalising the business.
However, it has continued to struggle with full year results in May showing that total clothing and home sales had fallen by 3.6% with like-for-likes down 1.6%.
Chief Executive Steve Rowe has taken over the direct leadership of the division with immediate effect. Whilst praising the former boss of Halfords for some of her achievements since joining M&S in 2017, he said: “The business now needs to move on at pace to address long-standing issues in our Clothing and Home supply chain around availability and flow of product. Given the importance of this task to M&S I will be overseeing this programme directly.”
At the time of McDonald’s appointment, analysts expressed surprise that M&S had hired someone with no fashion retailing experience. At its recent AGM, Rowe criticised the performance of its clothing ranges and suggested that buying errors on McDonald’s watch meant that at times key products such as jeans had sold out, resulting in the poorest stock levels “I have ever seen in my life”.
Earlier this week, M&S reaffirmed its ambition to double the size of its £6bn food business by utilising its new joint venture with Ocado and securing better terms with suppliers. The firm also hinted that it may shut more stores on top of those already earmarked as it pushes ahead with a major overhaul of the wider business.
