Marks & Spencer clothing and homewares chief to step down
Marks & Spencer has announced that its managing director for clothing and homewares will be leaving the business.
Jill McDonald has been working in the role for nearly two years.
Steve Rowe, M&S chief executive, will be taking over direct control of the business for the time being.
The clothing and homewares category at M&S has been struggling. In its full year results in May, the retailer said clothing and home sales had fallen by 3.6% as like-for-like sales edged down 1.6%. At the time, M&S said the performance was constrained by weak availability in some fast-selling lines.
In a statement yesterday, Rowe said McDonald had established a strong platform for the transformation of the clothing and home business. This included improving the quality and style of products and setting a clear direction for attracting a younger family age customer.
He added: “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.”
