M&S clothing and home boss Jill McDonald has been ousted after less than two years the role, with CEO Steve Rowe poised to take over the segment amid what he calls its “long-standing” supply chain issues.
McDonald joined the company from car parts to bicycle chain Halfords in October 2017 to take up the new role of managing director of clothing, home and beauty, and replace Rowe who was promoted to CEO in 2016.
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Her appointment was part of the retail group’s bid to turn around the fortunes of its non-food business, and she was given overall profit and loss accountability for all aspects of the M&S non-food operations, from design and sourcing through to supply chain and logistics.
However, M&S now says Rowe will be taking over the leadership of the business directly in the near term.
“Jill was brought in to establish a strong platform for the transformation of the clothing and home business. She has achieved that; she leaves with my thanks and good wishes for the future. She has recruited a talented team, improved the quality and style of product and set a clear direction for the business to attract a younger family age customer,” he says.
“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.”
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By GlobalDataIn May, M&S revealed plans to shutter a further 85 full-line stores amid a 9.9% drop in full-year profit in the year to 30 March, falling to GBP523.2m (US$663.1m) from GBP580.9m a year earlier. UK clothing and home sales were down 3.6% over the year, impacted by store closures, with like-for-like revenue down 1.6%. Gross margin, however, was up 20bps driven by 14% lower stock into sale.
The retailer said at the time: “Creating a new range architecture in a business with weak processes, a slow supply chain and where buyers are building their confidence has proven challenging, and our sales both in store and online have been frustrated by poor availability in Q4.”
